Belgaum dispute: Bus services from Kolhapur to Karnataka suspended
Kolhapur: Bus services from Kolhapur district in Maharashtra to Karnataka have been suspended against the backdrop of the ongoing border dispute between the two states over Belgaum, a police official said on Sunday. Maharashtra claims Belgaum, part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, but currently a district of Karnataka, on linguistic grounds.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier this month appointed ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Eknath Shinde as co-ordinators to oversee his government's efforts to expedite the case related to the boundary dispute with Karnataka.
The case is pending before the Supreme Court since many years.
The dispute escalated recently after certain remarks by a Kannada organisation against the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), which has been fighting for the merger of Marathi-speaking villages of Karnataka into the western state.
In view of it, the state transport bus services from Kolhapur to Karnataka have been suspended, a senior police official said. "All bus services from Kolhapur to Karnataka have been suspended since Saturday midnight as a precautionary measure," he said.
The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), which has been fighting for the merger of 800-odd villages with Maharashtra, recently submitted a memorandum of their demands to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
According to reports in a section of media, some days back, Karnataka Navnirman Sena leader Bhimashankar Patil said MES leaders, who have been fighting for the merger of disputed border areas with Maharashtra, should be shot dead on the border between the two states.
Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane, who represents Maharashtra's Hatkanangale constituency, later condemned Patil's remarks. Thackeray recently raised the issue of the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka over Belgaum in the state Assembly.
"The central government has taken Karnatakas side and ignored Maharashtra in the legal battle before the Supreme Court...it was going on for the last five years and everyone was kept in the dark," Thackeray alleged during the winter session of the state Assembly in Nagpur.
Various Kannada organisations staged a protest in Belgaum on Saturday by burning the effigy of Thackeray. The Shiv Sena has decided to hold a rally here on Sunday in protest against the act of Kannada organisations.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
