Mangaluru (PTI): The Congress party is divided on the hijab (scarf) issue as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) D K Shivakumar is not backing the views of Opposition Leader Siddaramaiah on the row, State Revenue Minister R Ashok said on Saturday.

Addressing reporters on the sidelines of a meeting at the zilla panchayat hall here, Ashok said Shivakumar is not allowing Congress leaders to openly say that they are in favour of hijab while Siddaramaiah has a different stance.

Ashok was responding to the Congress's demand for the resignation of K S Eshwarappa for his remarks on saffron flag at the Red Fort.

The Congress is not prepared to raise the hijab issue in the Assembly for discussion and is deviating the attention to Eshwarappa's comment, Ashok alleged.

The Minister wanted the Congress to come out clear on the issue to enable students to return to colleges.

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Ranchi (PTI): A 60-year-old security guard of a temple in Ranchi was bludgeoned to death with a stone during a robbery attempt, police said on Saturday.

The incident happened late on Thursday at the Jagannath Temple in the Dhurwa Smart City area, they said.

"Three persons were arrested on Friday for killing the security guard. They confessed to the crime and told police that the victim had identified them. Therefore, in fear of being caught, they killed him by attacking him with a stone on his head," SSP Rakesh Ranjan said.

"Thereafter, they took money from the donation box and fled the scene. Two of them have criminal antecedents," he added.

Ranjan said the investigators recovered Rs 3 lakh in cash that had been robbed, the stone with blood-stained marks, and the iron rod used to break open the lock of the donation box kept there.

An FIR in this regard was lodged at the Dhurwa police station, he said, adding that the accused were sent to judicial custody by a court.