SIT will soon begin probe into Dharmasthala 'mass burial' case: Minister Parameshwara
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Tuesday said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to probe allegations of mass burials in Dharmasthala in the Dakshina Kannada district, will soon visit there and begin the inquiry.
The SIT, headed by Pronab Mohanty, Director General of Police (Internal Security Division), consists of Deputy Inspector General of Police (Recruitment) M N Anucheth and IPS officers Soumyalatha S K and Jitendra Kumar Dayama.
"We have already given them (SIT) instructions to go there (Dharmasthala) immediately. Based on the records available at the police station, they will begin (the investigation). Instructions have gone to the local police too from the DG to give the related records and documents to the SIT.
"Mohanty (SIT chief) and his team will probably go there in a couple of days and will begin their work," Parameshwara said.
Responding to a question on reports claiming that two officers from SIT were seeking to leave for personal reasons, he said if anyone in the team makes a request not to be its part, citing reasons, and convinces, they will be replaced.
"For now, all four of them are part of the team. Yesterday I saw some media reports, but it has not come to me. If anyone from the team has requested the DG or the Commissioner, they will be replaced," he added.
The SIT was constituted by the government following claims about alleged mass murder, rape, and mass burials in Dharmasthala, over the past two decades.
A former sanitation worker, whose identity has not been revealed, has claimed that he worked in Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014, and that he was forced to bury a number of bodies, including those of women and minors, in Dharmasthala.
He had alleged that some of the bodies showed signs of sexual assault. He has also given a statement before a magistrate in this regard.
To a question about an alleged report submitted to the government in 2018 regarding unnatural deaths in Belthangady (the taluk under which Dharmasthala comes) and no action was taken based on that, the home minister stated that he was unaware of it. However, he assured that he would look into if such a report exists officially.
"Who has submitted the report I don't know. Who was in the committee? Who constituted it? Was it authorised by the government? Or was it private? Nothing is known. If any report has come to the government officially and if it was authorised by the government, then it will be examined," he said.
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Iran reimposes restrictions on Strait of Hormuz, accusing US of violating deal to reopen it
Cairo (AP): Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway on Saturday after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.
Iran's joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.
The announcement came the morning after US President Donald Trump said that even after Iran announced the strait's reopening on Friday, the American blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the US, including on its nuclear programme.
The conflict over the chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after oil prices began to fall again on Friday on hopes the US and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world's oil passes through the strait, and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again.
Control over the strait has proven to be one of Iran's main points of leverage and prompted the United States to deploy forces and initiate a blockade on Iranian ports as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to end almost seven weeks of war that has raged between Israel, the US and Iran.
Iran said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. But after Trump said the blockade would continue, top Iranian officials said his announcement violated last week's ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US and warned the strait would not stay open if the US blockade remained in effect.
A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran's approval.
US forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, US Central Command said on X.
Truce in Lebanon could help US-Iran peace efforts
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The ceasefire in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement. But it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a deal it did not play a role in negotiating, and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.
Trump said in another post that Israel is “prohibited” by the US from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defence.
Shortly before Trump's post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon “at the request of my friend President Trump,” but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.
He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90 per cent of Hezbollah's missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces “have not finished yet” with the dismantling of the group.
In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.
The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire took effect.
An end to Israel's war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week's ceasefire with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that the deal did not cover Lebanon.
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.
