Yellapura (PTI): At least eight persons were killed and 10 others sustained injuries when the truck in which they were travelling fell into a 50-metre-deep valley near here in the wee hours of Wednesday, a police officer said.

The victims, all fruit vendors, started from Savanur and were heading towards the Yellapura fair to sell fruits. They were traveling on the Savanur - Hubballi road when the accident occurred in a forested section, the Uttara Kannada Superintendent of Police M Narayana said.

"Around 5:30 am, the truck driver in a bid to give side to another vehicle went to the extreme left and fell into an about 50 metre deep valley," Narayana told PTI.

He added that there was no protection wall in the road in the valley.

"Eight persons were killed on the spot and two got critical injuries. The injured have been shifted to the KIMS Hospital in Hubballi," the officer said.

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Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.