No role in Mahadayi bandh; will support the cause: CM

Bengaluru, Apr 7: With reporting of 12 positive cases of COVID-19 since last evening, including three women, the total number of confirmed cases in Karnataka increased to 175, including four deaths.

According to official sources, while three fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported from Bengaluru, two each had been reported from Bagalkot, Kalaburagi and Mandya, followed by one each at Gadag and Bengaluru Rural districts.

After a gap of over three weeks, two more fresh cases had been reported from Kalaburagi, which had reported the first death of the country.

Apr 9: A panel of experts in the Karnataka state has suggested that the ongoing lockdown should be continued in districts identified as Covid-19 hotspots, including Bengaluru, to limit the spread of the pandemic.

IT companies and government offices providing essential services should be allowed to function with 50% staff, according to the committee headed by Narayana Health chairman Dr Devi Shetty, which submitted its report to chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Wednesday.

It has also asked the government to ease restrictions gradually and take adequate care over the next six months to contain the outbreak. The committee urged the government not to permit AC buses and metro services till April 30 and allow private vehicles only on alternate days (even-odd number-wise) for two weeks after April 15.

The government must close schools and colleges till May 31 and allow only inter-state movement of goods transport. The government could allow non-AC shops to open. It has suggested that the ban on inter-state train and flight services should continue.

Education minister S Suresh Kumar, who is the state Covid-19 spokesperson, said the Cabinet, which is meeting on Thursday, may discuss the recommendations and take a view on de-escalation of the lockdown.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers through videoconference on April 11, after which the government will get an idea about the Centre’s thinking, he said.

While some states including Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana have favoured continuation of the lockdown, Yediyurappa has not taken any stand publicly and has instead been implementing the Centre’s decision.

Six new cases

Karnataka on Wednesday reported six new Covid-19 positive cases, including that of a 65-year-old person in Kalaburagi, who died due to severe acute respiratory infection.

The health authorities have issued a notice to the private hospital -- where the deceased was initially admitted before being taken to a government hospital -- for not reporting the case to the government. The government has locked down the hospital, kept its entire medical team under quarantine, and police have registered a case of criminal negligence against the hospital authorities.

Of the other five positive cases, two had a travel history to Delhi, one had contact with a Dubai returnee and two others had close contacts with infected people.

This takes the total number of positive cases in the state to 181. Five people have died, while 28 have been discharged so far.

We, the undersigned express our solidarity with Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, renowned scholar, journalist and presently Chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission.

We strongly condemn the continued media trial and targeting of Dr Zafarul Islam Khan for his Facebook post thanking Kuwait for expressing solidarity with Indian Muslims. In his Facebook post, he mentioned the appalling deterioration of human rights of Indian Muslims who have been targeted by Hindutva bigots. A few politicians with ulterior motives and news channel anchors known for spreading bigotry and Islamophobia have mischievously sought to misinterpret his statement and ridiculously label him as anti-Hindu and anti-India.

He has only reiterated what many citizens of India, public figures, international institutions, various European governments, the United States of America and United Nations human rights mechanisms have repeatedly underlined their concern at the increasing human rights abuse and violations of religious minorities in India.

Dr Zafarul Islam Khan is a man of integrity. He is a scholar who is known to stand up for constitutional freedoms and values.

His work as the Chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission has been warmly applauded by human rights activists and NGOs across different faiths. His timely interventions on problems of minorities in Delhi have made him a respectable figure among not only Muslims but Sikh, Christians, Jains and Parsis. He is a humanist in the truest sense of the word.

The hateful propaganda against Dr Khan is one more illustration as how certain Indians fail to differentiate between Hinduism, a religion and Hindutva which is a supremacist political ideology.

Dr Zafarul Islam Khan is a leading Indian intellectual whose niche area is Islamic studies and Arab world. He enjoys great respect in the Arab and Muslim world for his understanding and knowledge. He is an alumni of the esteemed Jamia Al-Azhar and Manchester University.

Dr Khan is known for taking bold public positions. He was the first Muslim scholar in the world who denounced ISIL, which later became IS or ISIS. He issued a statement opposing the barbaric crimes of ISIL (IS or ISIS) and Boko Haram against minorities. He takes strong stands against extremism of all sorts. That makes him a prominent critic of RSS.

Dr Khan is a scholar ambassador and earned international prestige for the India. Any attack and targeting of him, is actually an insult to Indian constitution and ethos.

We demand the appropriate authorities of the Government of India take strong legal action against those who are distorting Dr Khan’s Facebook post, and spreading vicious false propaganda against him.

Signed by:

Swami Agnivesh

Mohammad Adeeb
Arun Kumar (Prof)

Zafar Jung

Kamal Faruqui

Annie Namala

Kavita Krishnan

Subhash Gatade

Jawed Naqvi

Indu Pratap Singh

Avinash Kumar

Iftikhar Gilani

Anil Chamadia

Xavier Dias

Denzil Fernandes (Dr)

Irfan Engineer

Faisal Khan

John Dayal (Dr)

Mujtaba Farooque

Ravi Nair

Abubakr Sabbaq (Adv)

Gopal Menon

Bilal Khan

Ashok Choudhury

Jaffer Latief Najar

Mujahid Nafis

Aseem Sundan

Poojan Sahil

Ankur Otto

Mariya Salim

Tanweer Alam

Juned Khan

E M Abdul Rahiman

Aditi Dutta

Devika Prasad

Ameeque Jamei

Suhaib Ansari

Gurminder Singh

A C Michael

Neelima Sharma

Aftab Alam (Dr)

Dhruva Narayan

Syed Saif Ur Rahman

Tanweer Fazal (Dr)

Thouseef Madikeri (Dr)

N.D. Jayaprakash

Salahuddin Ansari

Satyajeet Nambiar

Suhail KK

Abu Sufiyan

Sujata Madhok

Tariq Khan

Violin Mathew Benjamin

Shamsul Islam (Prof)

Sreedhar Ramamurthi

Mohd. Shahid (Prof)

Anand Vivek Taneja (Dr)

Kush Kumar Singh (Dr)

Mangla Verma

Vipul Kumar

Waquar Hasan

Braham Prakash

Abdul Rashid Agwan

Fawaz Shaheen

Guman Singh

Mohammed Hafeez Ulla

Kp Sasi

Mushfique Raza Khan

Partha S Banerjee

Gautam Majumdar

S.Q. Masood

Aiman J Khan

M. K. Faizy

Tasleem Rehmani (Dr)

Mohammed Shafi

Lenin Raghuvanshi (Dr)

Malik Motasim Khan

Kripal Singh Mandloi

Labeed Shafi

Qamar Intakhab

Raees Ahmed Siddiqui

Laeeq Ahmed Khan

Anthony Arulraj

Sadiq Zafar

Biju Gopidasan

George Pulikuthiyil

Mohd Abdullah

Mohd Sorab Hussain

Mukunda Kattel

Sandeep Pendse

Paul Newman

Ovais Sultan Khan