New party launch on Nov 1; to contest in 80 seats: Anupama Shenoy

Mangaluru, June 12: Juma prayers were held in dozens of mosques across coastal district of Dakshina Kannada including the city of Mangaluru for the first time in nearly three months upholding all the safety norms including physical distancing. 

For the first time in the recent history of Mangaluru, juma prayers were stalled in all the mosques for 11 consecutive weeks as part of nationwide coronavirus lockdown. 

While many mosques were reopened for the congregational prayers in the region on June 8 (Monday) after receiving approval from the government, many others are yet to be opened as Muslim religious leaders are taking additional precautionary measures to prevent the spread of covid-19 apart from following all the guidelines issued by the government.

“Around 400 people participated in the Juma prayer at Zeenat Bakhsh Juma Masjid. All the safety guidelines were followed. Sadaqatul Nadwi delivered the sermon and led the prayers,” S M Rasheed Haji, executive member of the mosque committee told coastaldigest.com.

“As per the guidelines, devotees performed Wudu (ablution) at their homes and also carried their own musalla (prayer mat) to the mosque,” said a Jalaluddin, a cleric who offered Juma prayers in Ullal.  

The guidelines issued by the government to the mosques also include disinfecting the premises at regular intervals, maintaining physical distance, wearing masks and finishing prayers in “minimum permissible time”.

Tumkur, Feb 9: A special puja was performed at the Durga Parameshwari temple and the Shaneshwara temple in Karnataka's Rangana Halli village to save people from coronavirus.

Yashwanth Shastri, a priest, said: "We performed this special puja on Friday to save the world from virus and diseases like corona and H1N1."

"Our ancestors used to perform a special puja for the betterment of society and save the world from viruses when they attacked," he said.

Coronavirus originated in China's Wuhan city in December last year and has since spread to various cities around the world.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global health crisis.

Mangaluru, Apr 26: City Police Commissioner P S Harsha on Sunday said that the news about the implementation of seal down in some wards of Mangaluru city is fake and urged the public not to pay any heed to it.

Taking to twitter, Mr Harsha wrote, ''Some miscreants are floating some old speculative…TV news reports of seal down in some wards of Mangaluru city. It’s fake news.....Don’t Heed to fake news.''