No decision yet on declaring govt holiday on Jan 22: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said no decision has been taken on declaring a government holiday on January 22 when the consecration of Ram Temple will be performed in Ayodhya.
Reacting to BJP’s demand for a holiday on January 22, Siddaramaiah said he has not yet seen the request letter. "No, not yet. We will see. I have not yet seen the letter. We will see it," Siddaramaiah told reporters when he was informed that the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council Kota Srinivas Pujari had written a letter to him in this regard.
The chief minister was also informed that BJP state president B Y Vijayendra had put forth a similar demand. "Not yet. We will see. I have not yet seen the letter. Let’s see," the chief minister added.
When asked whether he would go to Ayodhya, Siddaramaiah said, "Why are you repeating this question when I have already said that I will go there some other day." The chief minister had earlier said that he would visit Ayodhya but not on January 22. He had even accused the BJP of politicising the Ram temple issue for electoral gain.
ALSO READ: Vijayendra urges state government to take action to prevent any untoward incident on January 22
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in Bengaluru today, Vijayendra said the Karnataka government should consider declaring a holiday on January 22 in view of Lord Rama's connection with the state as Kishkindha Kshetra is in Hampi in Vijayanagara district. According to the epic Ramayana, Kishkindha Kshetra was the Monkey Kingdom.
The Anjanadri Hill in neigbouring Koppal district was the birthplace of Hanuman, the ardent devotee of Lord Rama. "The consecration of the temple is a historic occasion not just for India but across the globe as many countries are jubilant about it," the Shikaripura MLA said.
Vijayendra also asked the state government to be on alert to thwart any attempt to create disturbance and untoward incidents to disrupt festivities.
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.
Israel says rabbi who went missing in UAE was killed
Tel Aviv, Nov 24: Israel said Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found after he was killed in what it described as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident.”
The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel “will act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death.” There was no immediate comment from the UAE.
Zvi Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who went missing on Thursday, ran a Kosher grocery store in the futuristic city of Dubai, where Israelis have flocked for commerce and tourism since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords.
The agreement has held through more than a year of soaring regional tensions unleashed by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack into southern Israel. But Israel's devastating retaliatory offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, after months of fighting with the Hezbollah group, have stoked anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals and others living in the the UAE.
Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah, has also been threatening to retaliate against Israel after a wave of airstrikes Israel carried out in October in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
The Emirati government did not respond to a request for comment.
Early Sunday, the UAE's state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Kogan's disappearance but pointedly did not acknowledge he held Israeli citizenship, referring to him only as being Moldovan. The Emirati Interior Ministry described Kogan as being “missing and out of contact.”
“Specialised authorities immediately began search and investigation operations upon receiving the report,” the Interior Ministry said.
Netanyahu told a regular Cabinet meeting later Sunday that he was “deeply shocked” by Kogan's disappearance and death. He said he appreciated the cooperation of the UAE in the investigation and said that ties between the two countries would continue to be strengthened.
Israel's largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the killing and thanked Emirati authorities for "their swift action." He said he trusts they “will work tirelessly to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City. It said he was last seen in Dubai. The UAE has a burgeoning Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners.
The Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store that Kogan managed on Dubai's busy Al Wasl Road, was shut Sunday. As the wars have roiled the region, the store has been the target of online protests by supporters of the Palestinians. Mezuzahs on the front and the back doors of the market appeared to have been ripped off when an Associated Press journalist stopped by on Sunday.
Kogan's wife, Rivky, is a US citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The UAE is an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and is also home to Abu Dhabi. Local Jewish officials in the UAE declined to comment.
While the Israeli statement did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence services have carried out past kidnappings in the UAE.
Western officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in the UAE and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.
Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, though Tehran has denied involvement. Iran also kidnapped Iranian German national Jamshid Sharmahd in 2020 from Dubai, taking him back to Tehran, where he was executed in October.
