Injuries, damage reported in 6.2 quake in west Indonesia
Padang (Indonesia) (AP): A strong, shallow earthquake off Indonesia's coast Friday panicked people in Sumatra island and neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, damaged buildings and injured several people.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake measured 6.2 magnitude and struck about 66 kilometers (41 miles) north-northwest of Bukittinggi, a hilly town in West Sumatra province. It struck about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) below the Earth's surface.
Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency, said there was no danger of a tsunami but warned of possible aftershocks.
Television reports showed the strong temblor sending streams of panicked people into the streets in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, and patients in a hospital at West Pasaman district the closest area to the epicenter were being evacuated from the building.
People in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore also reportedly felt the tremors. A video that circulated on social media showed residents gathered in streets after high-rises in Kuala Lumpur swayed for a few seconds. Witnesses reported seeing their doors and chairs shaking and photos and paintings fixed to the walls trembling.
Hamsuardi, the West Pasaman district head, said Friday's earthquake caused minor to moderate damage to dozens of houses and buildings and injured several people, but no deaths were reported.
Authorities are still collecting information about the full scale of damage in the affected areas.
In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 105 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.
Indonesia has a number of seismic faults and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia. (AP)
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
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.
