MHA refers Siddaramaiah's plaint on Pegasus to Karnataka govt

News Network
November 6, 2021

Bengaluru, Nov 6: The Ministry of Home Affairs has referred the matter relating to former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's complaint to investigate the alleged spying and surveillance through Pegasus spyware to the Karnataka government saying that police and public order are state subjects.

The leader of opposition in the Karnataka Assembly petitioned President Ram Nath Kovind through Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot seeking a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court on "illegal" spying and surveillance through Pegasus on July 22 after staging a demonstration in the city.

Congress party leaders later that day took out a march to the Raj Bhavan and submitted his plea to Gehlot, which was addressed to President Kovind.

The petition was forwarded by the President's Secretariat to the Home Ministry, which recently sent a letter to the Karnataka Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar marking a copy to Siddaramaiah.

The ministry said, "Since 'police' and 'public order' are state subjects under the seventh schedule to the Constitution of India, it is the responsibility of the concerned state government to prevent, detect, register and investigate crime and prosecute the criminals involved through the machinery of its own law enforcement agencies, and hence, you may take action on the representation, as deemed appropriate."

Sources close to Siddaramaiah said that he may raise an objection over the letter as the matter pertains to 'Centre and state subject', which only Centre has to address. The senior Congress leader in his letter to the President on July 22 said people of the country are shocked and surprised to notice on July 18, 2021 that series of news reports in publications around the world revealed that more than 1,000 Indian mobile numbers of various personalities were targeted for surveillance including those of opposition party leaders, union ministers, supreme court judges, journalists, election commission members and other dignified and important persons of the country by using the Pegasus spyware of NSO Group of Israeli company.

"Pegasus Spyware is a commercial company, which works on paid contracts. The questions arise on who paid them for the 'Indian Operation'. If it is not the Government of India, then who it is?" Siddaramaiah wrote in his letter to the President.

Quoting media reports, he said since 2019, more particularly in the month of June and July of that year, he himself, then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, then Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and other political leaders' numbers were spied upon and kept under surveillance by tapping the phones of the leaders and their personal staff.

"The BJP leadership had engineered to resign 17 MLAs in the name and style of 'Operation Kamala' (Operation Lotus). Similarly the BJP leadership might have tapped the phones of leaders from Madhya Pradesh and other state governments and toppled the said state governments," Siddaramaiah alleged.

In his letter, he urged the President to order a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge on illegal spying and surveillance in the interest of national security and to uphold the dignity and fundamental rights of the citizens of India.

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News Network
January 10,2025

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Barakah International School and College is organizing a unique parenting workshop aimed at equipping parents with essential skills in various aspects of parenting. The event will take place at Barakah Auditorium, Ayar, on Thursday, January 16, 2025, at 6:30 PM.

This session will cover three crucial aspects of parenting:

Motivating Your Child to Excel in Academics: Presented by Sharfuddin B.S., Principal of Barakah International School and College and an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker.

Parenting in the Modern Age: Delivered by Mr. Saif Sultan, a renowned motivational speaker and Chairman of the Hope Foundation.

Parenting Skills to Instill Islamic Values: Led by Mohammad Haneef, Principal of the Islamic Department at Barakah International School and a well-known Khateeb.

The workshop will conclude with a Q&A session, providing participants the opportunity to gain deeper insights from the experts.

The program is free of cost and open to both parents, subject to prior registration. Maghrib and Isha prayer arrangements will be available, and refreshments will be served at the end.

Interested participants are encouraged to register at the earliest to secure their slots via the following Google Form:

https://forms.gle/mKxsr4A1UGrpo7DJ9

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News Network
January 13,2025

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The director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza has described as “hell” the situation in the north of the strip which has been under an Israeli ground offensive and siege for “100 days”.

“The situation is literally like hell,” Munir al-Barsh said on Sunday, referring to daily Israeli attacks and the regime’s ban on food delivery to medical staff trapped in the north’s hospitals.

He added that “hospitals in northern Gaza have turned into mass graves.”

Al-Barsh noted that the offensive and the destruction of hospitals and infrastructure and any sign of life in the north are aimed to empty the region of its residents.

“The Israeli occupation has been deliberately destroying the health system since the very first moment,” he said, adding that “the destruction of hospitals was the greatest evidence of the [Israeli] genocide.”

According to his statements, 5,000 people have been killed or gone missing, while 9,500 others have been injured since the start of Israel’s offensive on the north of Gaza in early October 2024. The regime’s forces have also abducted about 2,300 people, including 65 medical staff, during the ongoing offensive.

Al-Barsh slammed the “disgraceful” silence of the international community on Israel’s atrocities, which he said, has “deepened the suffering of innocent civilians.”

Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 46,565 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 109,660 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

However, the UK’s Lancet medical journal estimates the actual number of deaths in the war is much higher than the official toll.

According to the study, figures reported by the Palestinian health ministry likely undercounted the death toll by 41 percent in the first nine months of the war as the Gaza Strip’s healthcare infrastructure unraveled.

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News Network
January 6,2025

Bengaluru: An eight-month old baby has been detected with the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) in a Bengaluru hospital on Monday, with reports going viral online. This is likely the first reported case of HMPV in the country after the recent spike in China.

The baby is reportedly undergoing treatment in a private hospital in northern Bengaluru.

The Karnataka state health department has maintained that there is no cause for concern.

"We don't know what strain of virus is spreading in China. Without knowing that, we cannot say that this reported case is concerning. We have been reviewing all influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) from December to check for any strain that is concerning. There is no such concerning spike across the state or country," said a well-placed source in the state health department.

The HMPV is a known virus (first discovered in 2001) that causes respiratory symptoms similar to that of a common cold, largely affecting children below the age of five. It is not a new virus.

Cases have been reported in the past, especially in the winter season, note experts and health department officials, making it not an immediate concern, unless an unusual spike is observed.

In December 2024, 714 suspected cases of HMPV were tested in 16 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDLs) across the country, of which only nine were confirmed positive.

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