Two rebel MLAs fail to appear before Speaker for hearing
Bengaluru, Jul 15: Two rebel legislators, one each from the Congress and JD(S), failed to appear before the Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar Monday for a personal hearing over their resignations from the House, official sources said.
The speaker had last week asked Ramalinga Reddy (Cong) and Gopalaiah (JDS) to appear before him at his office.
Both Reddy and Gopalaiah had called up the Assembly Secretary's office and informed that they will not be able to appear Monday and sought another date, assembly secretariat sources said.
"Speaker is yet to fix another date for them to appear before him," the sources added.
While Gopalaiah remained in Mumbai along with other disgruntled MLAs, Reddy is said to have cited personal reasons.
Earlier in the day, Reddy, a seven time Congress legislator, had tweeted clarifying that he was in Bengaluru, amid reports that he was on his way to Mumbai where other rebel MLAs are camped.
"Some people are unnecessarily spreading the news that I am flying to Mumbai. I have made it very clear that I am in #Bengaluru. Request media friends to abstain from the rumours," he said in a tweet.
The Congress has considered Reddy an "exception" and has not made any disqualification plea against him, as he has stated that he was not quitting the party.
Coalition leaders including Chief Minister H DKumaraswamy, CLP leader Siddaramaiah and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal had made attempts to pacify Reddy and convince him to withdraw resignation.
Congress leaders feel that if Reddy withdraws, at least three Congress MLAs from Bengaluru city, S T Somashekar, Munirathna and Byrathi Basavaraj may also follow suit.
Earlier, three rebel MLAs Narayana Gowda of JDS and Anand Singh and Prathap Gouda Patil of Congress had failed to appear before the Speaker on July 12.
Reddy and Gopalaiah were part of the first batch of 13 legislators of the ruling Congress-JDS combine who resigned from the assembly on July 6, dealing a blow to the coalition government. Later, three other MLAs also quit.
Ramesh Kumar had held that the resignation letters of only five of the 13 MLAs were in proper format.
In addition to that of Gopaliah and Reddy, resignations of Gowda, Patil andSingh were found in order.
The speaker had then fixed July 12 and 15 for hearing MLAs whose resignations were in order,while asking others to submit their resignations properly.
Ten MLAs who moved the Supreme Court alleging that the speaker was not accepting their resignations had appeared before him Thursday as directed by the court and submitted resignations afresh.
After the MLAs met him, the speaker ruled out any immediate decision on the resignation.
When the matter came up Friday, the apexcourt restrained the speaker from taking any decision on the resignations as well as disqualification of MLAs till July 16.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear a plea of five more rebel Congress MLAs along with the pending petition of 10 legislators seeking a direction to the speaker to accept their resignations.
Five more rebel Congress MLAs from Karnataka had moved the top court on July 13 against the speaker not accepting their resignations.
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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.
