Man beaten to death in Jharkhand forest for protesting tree felling
Ranchi(PTI): A 45-year-old man, who headed a village forest protection committee in Jharkhand's Gumla district, was killed by a group of men on Friday after he protested illegal felling of trees, police said.
Shamim Ansari (45), the president of Raikera forest committee, was beaten to death in Bharno police station by men involved in illegal timber trade, they said.
"Ansari and a forest guard went to Raikera forest in the morning. Around 10.30 am, he called to inform me about seizure of logs. I asked them to be careful and inform the police. By 11 am, I got information that Ansari was brutally beaten to death with sticks by the villagers," divisional forest officer (DFO) Srikant Verma told PTI.
Sub-divisional officer (SDO) Ravi Anand said that Ansari was beaten to death after he stopped some people from cutting trees.
In January, a 32-year-old man was stoned to death, and his body was set on fire allegedly by a group of people in Simdega district on the suspicion that he felled trees to steal wood.
The incident had occurred barely a fortnight after the Jharkhand Assembly passed the Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021, which aims at providing "effective protection" of constitutional rights and the prevention of mob violence in the state.
A fortnight later, a 60-year-old woman was set on fire by locals at a village in the Simdega on the suspicion that she practised witchcraft.
In February, a 17-year-old boy was allegedly killed at Kariyadpur village in Barhi police station area of Hazaribag district during immersion processions after Saraswati Puja.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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.
