Financial assistance of Jamiat Ulama instills confidence to Kodagu disaster affected
Religious scholars’ organization offers help irrespective of caste and creed
Madikeri, Jan 17: Heavy rain which battered Kodagu district in last August has proved that only nature has the capacity to establish universal brotherhood. People of all communities were affected in the natural disaster. They have lost everything including houses and agriculture land.
But even after five months of the natural disaster, the affected families did not get any assistance or help. They are getting the food, but not the shelter. At this situation, the Bengaluru and Madikeri units of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Karnataka have consoled the affected people. At the Cauvery Kalakshetra, the organization conducted the national integration convention and distributed the cheques for financial assistance to the affected people.
Having 102 years of history, Jamiat Ulama has social concerns due to which, it has responded positively with food and clothes when the natural disaster struck Kodagu district.
Now, it has donated over Rs 45 lakh financial assistance to the affected people irrespective of castes and creeds. The Madikeri unit has conducted survey of affected people in Second Monnangeri, Jodupala, Madenadu, Katakeri, Kaluru, Makkandur, Chamundeshwari Nagar, Indira Nagar, Mallikarjuna Nagar and other extensions in the city for two months and helped the state unit.
A team of 12 members including MA Akbar Pasha, MK Mansoor, Hafiz riyaz Ahmed, Moulana Abdul Hakeem and Hafiz Issac Ahmed identified the eligible affected people. They have identified total 264 families affected during the natural disaster. The unit has distributed Rs 25,000 each for those who have lost houses completely, Rs 15,000 for partial damage and Rs 10,000 for minor damages of houses. Total 180 persons were given financial assistance during the programme.
Jamiat Ulama state president Moulana Mufti Iftikar Ahmed, Vice president Zainul Abidin Rashadi Mujahiri, General secretary Hazrat Maulana Mufti Shamsuddin and others distributed the cheques to the affected people and consoled them.
“Humanity is more important than any religion. Everyone should respond to the problems of others. More than Hindu, Christian, Islam and other castes or religions, human religion is the best religion”, said Moulana Mufti Iftikar Ahmed.
The God has sown the seeds of humanity in every individual. It should be nurtured as a big tree to give shade and light to the distressed people. Even animals were also given humanity. But they do not have responsibility. But the humans have their own social responsibility and they should establish unity without creating any confusion, he appealed.
Hazrat Maulana Mufti Shamsuddin said that Jamiat Ulama was not a political organization. It had fought for the freedom of the country. The organization has been responding to the distressed people irrespective of religions. Everyone should inculcate the qualities of responding to the problems of others in humanitarian ground, he appealed.
Organisation vice president Zainul Abdin Rashadi Muzahari said that the organization had participated in freedom struggle. Even after freedom, it had taken active participation in establishing national integration. Everyone should work for uniting the people instead of dividing them, he said.
City Municipal Council president Kaveramma Somanna and member Amin Mohsin spoke on the occasion. Organisation national committee member Nasrullah Sharief, leaders MA Akbar Pasha, MK Mansur, Hafeez Riyaz Ahmed, Moulana Abdul Hakeem and Hafiz Isaac Ahmed were present on the occasion. More than 300 distressed people from various parts of the district participated in the programme.
More assistance will be given
Though 264 families were selected, the cheques for financial assistance were given away to just 180 people. For the remaining affected people, the cheques will be given away next week, Jamiat Ulama leader and CMC member MK Mansoor told ‘Varthabharati’.
“The number of eligible affected people is more. We wanted to assist them all, for which, we need more money and Jamiat Ulama will help us. Jamiyat has given Rs 4 crore to Kerala disaster affected people and Rs 1 crore to Tamil Nadu people and more assistance will be given to Kodagu people”, he said.
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Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza's Rafah ahead of an expected assault
Jerusalem, May 6: The Israeli army ordered some 100,000 Palestinians on Monday to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah, signalling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent and further complicating efforts to broker a cease-fire in Gaza.
The looming operation in the city — where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering and a high number of deaths is feared — has raised global alarm and Israeli's closest allies have warned against it. On Monday, the United Nations agency serving Palestinian refugees said it would not comply with the evacuation order.
Israel has described Rafah as the last significant Hamas stronghold after some seven months of war, and has repeatedly said the invasion is necessary to defeat the Hamas group, which unleashed the current conflict with an attack on Israel on October 7.
But Hamas and key mediator Qatar have warned that invading Rafah — along the border with Egypt — could derail efforts by international mediators to broker a cease-fire.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said some 100,000 people were being ordered to move to a nearby Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi — a makeshift camp of tents where along the coast hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought safety and live in squalid conditions.
Shoshani said Israel was preparing a “limited scope operation” and would not say whether this was the beginning of a broader invasion of the city. Israel never formally announced the launch of its current ground invasion in Gaza.
Smoke could be seen rising from Rafah Monday afternoon, although the cause was unclear.
Tensions escalated Sunday when Hamas fired rockets at Israeli troops positioned on the border with Gaza near Israel's main crossing for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid, killing four soldiers. Israel shuttered the crossing — but Shoshani said it would not affect how much aid enters Gaza as others are working.
He would not say whether the upcoming operation was a response to that attack. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on Rafah killed 22 people, including children and two infants, according to a hospital.
Shoshani said Israel published a map of the evacuation area, and that orders were being issued through air-dropped leaflets, text messages and radio broadcasts. He said Israel has expanded humanitarian aid into Muwasi, including field hospitals, tents, food and water.
Israel's army said on the social media platform X that it would act with “extreme force” against militants, and urged the population to evacuate immediately for their safety.
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, condemned the “forced, unlawful” evacuation order and the idea that people should go to Muwasi.
“The area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services,” Egeland said.
About 1.4 million Palestinians — more than half of Gaza's population — are jammed into Rafah and its surroundings. Most of them fled their homes elsewhere in the territory to escape Israel's onslaught and now face another wrenching move or the danger of staying under a new assault.
They live in densely packed tent camps, overflowing U.N. shelters or crowded apartments, and are dependent on international aid for food, with sanitation systems and medical facilities infrastructure crippled.
Palestinians in Rafah said people gathered to discuss their options after receiving the flyers.
“So many people here are displaced and now they have to move again, but no one will stay here it's not safe,” Nidal Alzaanin told The Associated Press by phone.
A father of five, Alzaanin works for an international aid group and fled to Rafah from Beit Hanoun in the north at the start of the war. He said people are concerned since Palestinians have said they were fired at during previous evacuations. Israel denies shooting at civilians.
Alzaanin said he has packed his documents and bags but will wait 24 hours to see what others do before relocating. He said he has a friend in Khan Younis whom he hopes can pitch a tent for his family.
The U.N. agency that has helped millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank for decades, known as UNRWA, warned Monday of devastating consequences of a Rafah offensive, including more civilian suffering and deaths. Juliette Touma, communications director for the agency, which has thousands of employees in the city, said it has not evacuated and has no plans to do so.
Egypt's Rafah crossing, a main transfer point for aid going into Gaza, lies in the evacuation zone. The crossing remained open on Monday after the Israeli order.
The war was sparked by an unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other groups killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages.
The ensuing conflict has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The tally does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but officials say at least two-thirds of the dead are children and women. It has left a swath of destruction in Gaza, and around 80% of the territory's population has fled to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave.
Recently, pressure to end the war has grown. Even as the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have pushed for a cease-fire agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated last week that the military would move on the city regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck.
A Hamas official told The Associated Press that Israel is trying to pressure the group into making concessions on the cease-fire, but that it won't change its demands. Hamas wants a full end to the war, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the eventual reconstruction of the strip in exchange for the Israeli hostages held by the group.
In Rafah, people received flyers Monday morning in Arabic detailing which neighborhood blocks needed to leave and said that aid services would be provided in other cities.
“The IDF is about to operate with force against the terror organizations in the area you currently reside,” the army said in its evacuation order to residents. “Anyone in the area puts themselves and their family members in danger.”
But some people say they're too tired and fed up of months of devastation to flee again.
Sahar Abu Nahel fled to Rafah with 20 members of her family.
“Where am I going to go? I have no money or anything. I am seriously tired as are (my) children," she said wiping tears from her cheeks. “Maybe its more honourable for us to die. We are being humiliated.”
