Delhi: Kalkaji temple 'sevadaar' beaten to death; one arrested
New Delhi (PTI): A 35-year-old 'sevadaar' in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji temple was allegedly beaten to death in public after an argument took a violent turn, the police said on Saturday, adding that one arrest has been made.
According to officials, a call was made to the police control room about the row at the temple around 9.30 pm on Friday.
The argument broke out after the accused, who were visiting the temple, demanded 'chunniprasad' — a combination of a sacred headscarf and a religious offering of food — from the 'sevadaar', Yogendra Singh, a native of Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh.
The altercation turned violent as the group allegedly dealt fist blows to Singh and beat him up with sticks, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said.
Singh, who had been serving at the Kalkaji temple for almost 15 years, was rushed to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment, an officer said.
Officials noted that the CCTV footage of the incident captures men brutally attacking the deceased with sticks in full public view.
"The incident took place around 9 pm. It is truly heartbreaking. The temple committee and the pujari community demand justice and want the accused arrested at the earliest." Siddharth Bhardwaj, General Secretary of the Kalkaji temple, told PTI.
He highlighted that the initial information suggested that the accused men were creating a nuisance and not following the temple rules. They had also asked for 'prasad', which Yogendra couldn't give because it was over.
"Yogendra must have asked them to adhere to the rules, which angered them and led to this heinous act. The sevadars here have been serving the temple for generations, tying the sacred thread for devotees," Bhardwaj said.
"His post-mortem is underway. His family is devastated, and so are we. The nature of the brutal attack has shocked everyone. Strict action must be taken so that no such crime is ever repeated against temple sevadars," he added.
Recalling the incident, Raju, another sevadar at the temple, said, "he was sitting in his dharamshala when 10 to 15 men dragged him outside and beat him to death. He had been serving here for the last 10 to 15 years. All the prasad offered in the temple is distributed among devotees. When these men asked him for prasad, there was none left, so he had to refuse them."
He further alleged that the attackers took advantage of the fact that other sevadars had gone inside to perform pooja. "Finding him alone, they pounced on him and beat him to death," Raju claimed.
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal took to X and said, "Did these miscreants not even flinch before brutally killing a sewadar inside the Kalkaji Temple? If this is not a failure of law and order, then what is?"
"The four engines of the BJP have brought Delhi to such a state that now even temples are witnessing such incidents. Is anyone really safe in Delhi anymore?" he questioned.
A case has been registered at the Kalkaji Police Station under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Sections 103(1) (murder) and 3(5) (joint liability), DCP Tiwari said.
Sharing details of another accused, Atul Pandey (30), a resident of Dakshinpuri, the DCP added that he was caught on the spot by the locals and handed over to the police.
Meanwhile, efforts are underway to identify and nab the remaining accused in the murder of Yogendra Singh.
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Malian defence minister killed in attack that saw jihadis and rebels seize towns, military bases
Dakar (AP): Malian Minister of Defence Gen. Sadio Camara was killed in an attack as jihadi and rebel forces seized towns and military bases across the country, according to a military officer and two other sources on Sunday.
There was no immediate comment from the Malian government.
“Unfortunately, the Ministry of Defence, Gen. Sadio Camara, has been killed during the attack which targeted his house yesterday,” said a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the media.
Two other people, a civil society leader and a security member, confirmed the information.
Separatist fighters on Saturday joined Islamic militants in launching one of the biggest coordinated attacks on the Malian army in the capital and several other cities that left at least 16 wounded.
The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali, while al-Qaida and Islamic State group-aligned militants have been fighting the government for over a decade.
Malian troops and Russian mercenaries withdrew from the northern city of Kidal after the attacks, the rebels said Sunday.
A spokesperson for the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, a separatist group, said the Russian Africa Corps troops and the Malian military withdrew from the city after an agreement was reached for their peaceful exit.
“Kidal is declared free,” said FLA spokesperson Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadan.
The Malian army did not respond to requests for comment but in an earlier statement said they were “tracking down terrorist armed groups in Kidal.”
The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali. Kidal had long served as a stronghold of the rebellion before being taken by Malian government forces and Russian mercenaries in 2023. Its capture marked a significant symbolic victory for the junta and its Russian allies.
It was the first time the separatists worked alongside the al-Qaida-linked militant group JNIM, which also claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks on Bamako's international airport and four other cities, including Kidal, in central and northern Mali.
“This operation is being carried out in partnership with the JNIM, which is also committed to defending the people against the military regime in Bamako,” Ramadan said.
Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank, said that the coordination between the two groups, as well as the explicit call for the Russian military to leave, is new.
“The coordination, conducting attacks all over the country at the same time, real coordination on the military level but also on the political level because both claims of both groups they acknowledged that they worked together, this is a first,” said Nasr.
Mali government spokesperson Gen. Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said on state television late Saturday that 16 people were wounded, including civilians and military personnel, and that several militants were killed. He did not provide a death toll.
The governor of Bamako's district, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, announced a three-day overnight curfew, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The Economic Community of West African States has condemned the attacks and called on “all states, security forces, regional mechanisms and populations of West Africa to unite and mobilize in a coordinated effort to combat this scourge.”
The separatists called on Russia to “reconsider its support for the military junta in Bamako, whose actions have contributed to the suffering of the civilian population.”
Following military coups, the juntas in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso turned from Western allies to Russia for help in combating Islamic militants. But the security situation has worsened in recent times, with a record number of attacks by militants. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.
In 2024, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed an attack on Bamako's airport and a military training camp in the capital, killing scores of people.
Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said that while the attacks were a major blow to the credibility of Mali's Russian partners, JNIM is unlikely to take control of Bamako in the near term due to opposition from the local population.
“The attacks are a major blow to Russia as the mercenaries had no intelligence about the attacks and were unable to protect major cities. They have unnecessarily worsened the conflict by not distinguishing between civilians and combatants,” Laessing said.
