Saffronization of judiciary is underway; time to wake up: PFI

Mangaluru, May 20: In a heart-wrenching turn of events, a young man ended his life by stepping in front of a speeding train at Kolakadi railway gate near Mulky, following the tragic suicide of his beloved girlfriend. This sorrowful incident unfolded on Sunday casting a pall of grief over their families and the community.

The Victims of Love

The deceased, Kartik Poojary, a 20-year-old mechanic, had returned to his home in Molottu on Saturday after working in Chitradurga. Kartik lived with his mother and grandmother in Molottu, and had recently started working at a relative’s garage.

Kartik’s heart belonged to his collage mate Sharanya, 19, daughter of Harish Kotyan. Their love, blooming in their teenage years, faced the stern disapproval of their parents due to their young age. Although their parents had reluctantly agreed to their union through a legal bond to marry once they reached the appropriate age, fate took a cruel turn.

The Cruel Twist of Fate

In a sudden decision, Sharanya's parents withdrew her from college and sent her away to Moodbidri. Overwhelmed by despair and separation, Sharanya ended her life by hanging herself at home while her family was away on Friday. Her death was a blow too harsh for Kartik to bear.

A Grief Too Heavy to Bear

Kartik, shattered by the news of Sharanya’s death, hurried back to his home in Molottu on Saturday. The following morning, with his mother away in Kerala on urgent business, Kartik's grief culminated in his tragic decision. He walked to the railway tracks at Kolakadi and succumbed to his sorrow under the wheels of a passing train.

The Aftermath

The Mulky police, led by Inspector Vidyadhar, arrived at the scene and registered a case. The community is left mourning the untimely deaths of two young lives intertwined by love and separated by an unkind twist of fate.

Mangaluru: A teenage boy from a remote village in Dakshina Kannada district, who was undergoing treatment for stomach pain for past few days, breathed his last after hospitalization. 

The deceased has been identified as Nithin Kumar, 19, who had completed PUC and was attending computer classes. 

According to police, on May 4, when he informed his family that he had been suffering from a stomach-ache for the past 4-5 days, his family members took him to a clinic in Kaniyoor.

The doctors who examined him advised him to undergo scanning. He was informed about a kidney stone and later, they returned home. That same night, he suffered from stomach-ache again and was rushed to a private hospital in Puttur.

On May 7, as per doctors’ advice, he was discharged around 12:45pm. However, when he came home around 2:30pm, he again suffered from stomach-ache and was taken to another private hospital in Puttur, where doctors conducted a surgery.

On Wednesday, as per doctors’ advice, he was asked to be shifted to Mangaluru for better treatment.

He visited a private hospital in Derakatte, where doctors suggested that he be shifted to government Wenlock Hospital.

The doctors who examined him at the Wenlock Hospital declared him dead. A case has been registered at the Bellare police station, and an investigation is on.

Israeli military aircraft have heavily bombed the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip accompanied with ground advances shortly after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said it had agreed to a proposal on ceasefire in Gaza.

A Palestinian journalist reported flares in the night sky, while locals said dozens of reconnaissance drones flew overhead.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa and Egyptian media said Israeli military vehicles advanced towards the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, as well as the Karem Shalom crossing with the Israeli-occupied territories.

A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian authority have told the Associated Press news agency that Israeli tanks have entered Rafah, reaching as close as 200 meters from Rafah’s border crossing with neighboring Egypt.

The Israeli military has said it was conducting “targeted strikes” against Hamas in eastern Rafah.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has also said "Israel is continuing the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas" in order to advance the release of captives and what it called "the other objectives of the war."

In the meantime, it described the proposal on ceasefire as "far from Israel's essential demands," but added that it would send negotiators for talks "to exhaust the potential for arriving at an agreement."

The military strikes on Rafah came ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal accepted by Hamas, which was put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. 

According to a copy of the proposal, there will be three phases to ending Israel’s onslaught against Gaza.

The first phase calls for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim corridor and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes. The second phase involves an announcement of a permanent cessation of military operations. In the last phase, there would be a complete end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip. 

In return, Israel would be required to release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners, withdraw its troops from certain regions of the Gaza Strip, and allow Palestinians to travel from the south of the coastal sliver to the north.

About 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, once designated a “safe zone” by the Israeli military. Palestinians are now struggling to evacuate the city, after the Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering them to leave as a large-scale assault on the city is planned.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that a ground invasion of Rafah would be “intolerable” and called on Israel and Hamas “to go an extra mile” to reach a truce deal.

“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground invasion in Rafah would be intolerable because of its devastating humanitarian consequences, and because of its destabilizing impact in the region,” Guterres told reporters on Monday ahead of a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in New York.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has also warned that Israel is “jeopardizing the deal by bombing Rafah.”