8 police personnel injured as ban on ritual triggers violence

July 20, 2012

salem

Salem, July 20: Villagers turned violent and indulged in stone-throwing when the police tried to stop ‘eruthuattam’ (bull dancing), an age-old ritual, at the annual festival of their village temple at Neikkarapatti, near here on Thursday.

Their action forced the police to resort to lathi charge and burst tear gas shells. Eight police personnel, including an inspector and a few village women were injured.

After first-aid, the injured were removed to the Salem Government Medical College Hospital for further treatment.

Traffic on the busy Salem-Coimbatore four-lane National Highway remained disrupted for nearly two hours in the morning when a group of miscreants staged a road blockade protesting the denial of permission for the ritual.

The police, after chasing them out amid a hail of stones, had to remove boulders, stones and tree branches placed on the highway for a distance of one km, to restore traffic.

Senior revenue and police officials, including Collector K. Maharabushanam, DIG Sanjay Kumar, SPs Ashwin M Kotnis (Salem), Ajithkumar Singh (Dharmapuri) and Kannammal (Namakkal), Salem RDO Prasanna Ramasamy and other officials held talks with villagers till late Thursday evening.

The villagers promised them that they would strive hard to restore peace.

They claimed that the police refused permission for the ‘eruthuattam’ ritual citing Supreme Court orders.

People from 18 villages had congregated on the temple premises to celebrate ‘eruthuattam,’ which, according to them, was an important ritual.

They said that the devotees had brought the bulls from various places. These animals, they said, would be taken out one by one for the ritual in front of the temple after tethering them to poles.

The devotees also claimed it was different from traditional ‘jallikattu’ (bull taming) sport, being staged in many southern districts, against which the Supreme Court had passed a set of stringent guidelines.

“Here neither the animal will be subjected to any form of cruelty nor will any life be lost,” said a temple trustee member.

Collector Maharabushanam refuted their claims saying permission was turned down to the ritual as per the Government Order based on Supreme Court guidelines that banned any acts of cruelty to animals. “The villagers accepted this and ensured peace,” he further said.

“We have detained 124 persons in connection with the violence so far. We maintained patience despite provocation and retaliated ‘mildly’ when the situation threatened to go out of control,” said SP Ashwin M Kotnis to The Hindu.

The police bolstered security in and around the village besides mounting a house-to-house search for troublemakers.


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News Network
May 27,2020

New Delhi, May 27: With 6,387 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, India's count of COVID-19 rose to 1,51,767 on Wednesday, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

170 people have also died in the last 24 hours due to the infection.

Currently, there are 83,004 active cases while 64,425 COVID-19 positive patients have been cured/discharged and one has migrated. So far, a total of 4,337 deaths have taken place across the country.

Among all states, Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 54,758. Tamil Nadu has 17,728 cases with Gujarat at 14,821 cases. The national capital has 14,465 reported cases of coronavirus.

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News Network
February 3,2020

New Delhi, Feb 3: In the third such incident inside of a week, two unidentified persons opened fire outside Gate No. 5 of Jamia Millia Islamia on Sunday night, the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) said.

A statement issued by the committee, a group comprising students and alumni of the university formed to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, said the attackers were on a red Rcooty.

No one was injured in the attack. One of the miscreants was wearing a red jacket, the statement said.

"Firing has taken place at Gate No.5 of Jamia Millia Islamia right now by two unidentified persons. As per report, one of them was wearing a red jacket and driving a red Scooty having vehicle no. 1532 or 1534," the statement said.

Police said they were verifying the JCC's claims.

Asim Mohammed Khan, former Congress MLA from Okhla, said the incident occurred around 11.30 pm. "We heard the gunshot. That is when we stepped out to see and the two men left on a Scooty," a student said.

"We have taken down the vehicle number and called police," he added.

This is the third firing incident in the Jamia Nagar area in a week.

On Thursday, a minor fired at anti-CAA protesters marching towards Rajghat, injuring a student.

Two days later, a 25-year-old fired two rounds in air in Shaheen Bagh in Jamia Nagar. No one was hurt in the incident.

The incident on Sunday night triggered panic in the area. A police vehicle had reached the spot after the incident but was chased away by angry students.

Hundreds of students and locals gathered outside the university.

Many raised slogans against the Delhi Police. They also staged a dharna outside the Jamia Nagar police station.

Shezad Ahmed, a JMI student and resident of Zakir Nagar, said they were not even allowed to protest peacefully.

"We are not going to be deterred by such incidents. We will continue with our protest," he added.

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News Network
April 3,2020

New Delhi, April 3: With 478 cases reported in the last 24 hours, the highest spike so far, India's tally of positive coronavirus cases on Friday rose to 2,547 including 162 cured/discharged and 62 deaths, as per the latest data of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As many as 647 positive coronavirus cases have been reported so far from across 14 States whose linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster at Nizamuddin, the Centre said on Friday.

"A total of 647 cases of positive coronavirus cases have been reported from across 14 States whose linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster at Nizamuddin," Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

"The cases can be traced in Andaman and Nicobar, Assam, Delhi, Himachal, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh," added Aggarwal.

The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including deaths in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana.

An FIR was earlier registered against Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad and others under the Epidemic Disease Act 1897, in the national capital.

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