Karnataka Board of Auqaf asks mosques to conclude Juma prayers in 15 minutes

Bengaluru, Jul 1: Karnataka registered a record 1,272 Covid positive cases to breach the 16,000- mark to take the states tally to 16,514, while seven people succumbed to the dreaded virus, an official said on Wednesday.

"New cases reported from Tuesday 5 p.m. to Wednesday 5 p.m. 1,272," said a health official.

In the past 24 hours, seven people have succumbed to the virus, two each in Bengaluru Urban and Bidar and one each in Dakshina Kannada, Belagavi and Hassan, taking the state''s death toll to 253.

Of the record number of cases in the last 24 hours, Bengaluru Urban bore the brunt with 735 infections, taking the city''s tally rise to 5,290, out of which 4,649 are active cases.

Among the new cases, excluding Bengaluru, Ballari accounted for 85, followed by Dakshina Kannada (84), Dharwad (35), Bengaluru Rural (29), Vijayapura and Hassan (28 each), Uttara Kannada (23) and Udupi (22).

Chamarajanagar witnessed 21 cases, followed by Bagalkote (20), Tumkur (19), Davangere (16), Chikkaballapura (15), Kalaburagi and Ramanagara (14 each), Koppal (13), Raichur and Chitradurga (12 each), Yadgir, Bidar and Belagavi (8 each), Kodagu (7), Mandya and Kolar (5 each), Shivamogga (3), Gadag (2) and Chikkamagaluru (1).

Of the 1,272 new cases, 1,068 or 84 per cent are contacts of earlier cases while domestic returnees accounted for 42 cases or 3 per cent.

On Wednesday, 145 people got discharged from different hospitals, elevating the total number discharges to 8,063.

Of the 16,514 cases in Karnataka, 8,194 are active cases.

Dubai, Apr 11: An Indian expat in the UAE is facing police action for allegedly insulting Islam on social media in response to a Facebook post on the coronavirus, according to a media report.

Rakesh B Kitturmath, who worked as a team leader at Emrill Services, an integrated facilities management (FM) headquartered in Dubai, was sacked on Thursday after his post sparked outrage on social media, the Gulf News reported.

“Kitturmath’s employment stands terminated with immediate effect. He will be handed over to Dubai Police. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards such hate crimes,” said Stuart Harrison, CEO of Emrill Services.

"As an organisation, we have worked hard over the years to embrace diversity and create a culture of inclusion, where every nationality, religion and background is welcomed and celebrated. We have a strict social media policy for our employees to ensure they respect our values, both inside and outside of work," the newspaper quoted Harrison as saying.

Harrison said they are trying to find out if Kitturmath was still in the UAE, according to the report.

“We have over 8,500 employees so this may take a while. That said, we have fired him. If he’s still in the country, he will be handed over to Dubai Police,” he said.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click  here

Originally from Ranebennuri, Karnataka, Kitturmath joins an ever-growing list of Indian ex-pats who have landed in trouble for alleged Islamophobic messages in recent days.

Earlier this week, Abu Dhabi resident Mitesh Udeshi was sacked for posting a cartoon mocking Islam on his Facebook page while a police complaint was filed against Sameer Bhandari of Future Vision Events & Weddings’ in Dubai after he asked a Muslim job seeker from India to go back to Pakistan.

The UAE outlaws all religious or racial discrimination under a legislation passed in 2015.

The anti-discrimination/anti-hatred law prohibits all acts “that stoke religious hatred and/or which insult religion through any form of expression, be it speech or the written word, books, pamphlets or via online media.”

Mysuru, Mar 6: A BJP worker was stabbed to death by unidentified persons at his apartment in Mysore in the early hours of Friday, police said.

Anand in his early thirties, was reportedly attacked with a broken beer bottle shortly after he returned home following his late night birthday party, police added.

Following information from neighbours in the apartment, police rushed to the spot and recovered the body.

"The murder took place between 3 am and 4 am. We are investigating who was with him at the time and what was the motive behind the killing," Mysuru police Commissioner Dr Chandragupta told reporters.

Police said further investigations are on to ascertain the motive and people behind the killing.