No candidate for Mangaluru North from Congress even as party releases 4th list of candidates
Mangaluru: The announcement of the Congress candidate for the Mangaluru North Constituency remained elusive even as the party announced its fourth list of candidates on Tuesday evening.
Candidates for seven constituencies were announced on Tuesday wherein the candidate for one of the most anticipated constituencies – Mangaluru North – was not announced.
Interestingly, only two days are remaining for the process of filing nominations as the last date for the nomination filing process is on April 20. The Congress has announced candidates for 7 out of 8 constituencies in the district while across the state it has announced candidates for 216 candidates out of 224 constituencies.
The party is yet to announce candidates in eight constituencies including Mangaluru North.
The race for the Congress party ticket for the Mangaluru North Constituency in Karnataka is heating up as KPCC General Secretary Inayat Ali and former MLA Moidin Bawa are both vying for the coveted ticket. Although it is unclear who will ultimately receive the ticket.
Both Ali and Bawa are reportedly confident that they have a strong chance of securing the ticket. According to party sources, no other candidates are being considered for the ticket, and the final Congress list, which is set to be released on Wednesday, will confirm the chosen candidate.
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Rohingya refugees mark the anniversary of their exodus and demand a safe return to Myanmar
Cox's Bazar (AP): Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who live in sprawling camps in Bangladesh on Sunday marked the seventh anniversary of their mass exodus, demanding safe return to Myanmar's Rakhine state.
The refugees gathered in an open field at Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar district carrying banners and festoons reading “Hope is Home” and “We Rohingya are the citizens of Myanmar,” defying the rain on a day that is marked as “Rohingya Genocide Day.”
On August 25, 2017, hundreds of thousands of refugees started crossing the border to Bangladesh on foot and by boats amid indiscriminate killings and other violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Myanmar had launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organisation and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the UN, of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Then-Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered border guards to open the border, eventually allowing more than 700,000 refugees to take shelter in the Muslim-majority nation. The influx was in addition to the more than 300,000 refugees who had already been living in Bangladesh for decades in the wake of waves of previous violence perpetrated by Myanmar's military.
Since 2017, Bangladesh has attempted at least twice to send the refugees back and has urged the international community to build pressure on Myanmar for a peaceful environment inside Myanmar that could help start the repatriation. Hasina also sought help from China to mediate.
But in the recent past, the situation in Rakhine state has become more volatile after a group called Arakan Army started fighting against Myanmar's security forces. The renewed chaos forced more refugees to flee toward Bangladesh and elsewhere in a desperate move to save their lives. Hundreds of Myanmar soldiers and border guards also took shelter inside Bangladesh to flee the violence, but Bangladesh later handed them over to Myanmar peacefully.
As the protests took place in camps in Bangladesh on Sunday, the United Nations and other rights groups expressed their concern over the ongoing chaos in Myanmar.
Washington-based Refugees International in a statement on Sunday described the scenario.
“In Rakhine state, increased fighting between Myanmar's military junta and the AA (Arakan Army) over the past year has both caught Rohingya in the middle and seen them targeted. The AA has advanced and burned homes in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and other towns, recently using drones to bomb villages,” it said.
“The junta has forcibly recruited Rohingya and bombed villages in retaliation. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have been newly displaced, including several who have tried to flee into Bangladesh,” it said.
UNICEF said that the agency received alarming reports that civilians, particularly children and families, were being targeted or caught in the crossfire, resulting in deaths and severe injuries, making humanitarian access in Rakhine extremely challenging.
