UDUPI, India: Some schools reopened in the Indian state of Karnataka on Monday after closing last week when protests erupted over students being barred from wearing the hijab in class.
The issue, widely seen by India’s Muslim minority community as a bid to sideline it by authorities in a Hindu-dominated nation, comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prepares for elections in key states.
Police stood guard as students in pink uniforms, about a dozen wearing the hijab, entered a government girl’s school where the issue first flared in the southern Indian state’s district of Udupi, about 400 km (250 miles) from the tech hub of Bengaluru.
Authorities have banned gatherings of more than five people within 200 meters of educational institutions in the area, as classes from primary to high school began. Colleges remain shut.
A court in the state last week told students not to wear any religious clothing — ranging from saffron shawls, worn by some Hindus, to headscarves — in classrooms until further notice.
Devadatt Kamat, a lawyer in the case, said in an online hearing on Monday that his clients had been covering their heads in class since joining school. They were mainly seeking permission to keep wearing headscarves in the colors of school uniforms, he said.
Last week some schools refused entry to girls and women wearing the hijab, citing a Feb. 5 order on uniforms by the state, ruled by Modi’s party.
Some Muslim students and parents protested the move, drawing counter protests from Hindu students who wore saffron shawls and shouted slogans.
Modi’s party derives its support mainly from the majority Hindu community, which makes up about 80 percent of India’s population of roughly 1.4 billion, while Muslims account for about 13 percent.
Ayesha Imthiaz, a student in Udupi, said it was humiliating to be asked to take off the hijab before class.
An official in the coastal district, Pradeep Kurudekar S, told reporters authorities would wait for further orders from the government to resume all classes.
Some schools reopen in Indian state after hijab dispute
https://arab.news/72f6e
Some schools reopen in Indian state after hijab dispute
- The issue is seen by India’s Muslim minority as a bid to sideline it by authorities in a Hindu-dominated nation
- A court in Karnataka last week told students not to wear any religious clothing in classrooms until further notice
UK child killer Ian Huntley dies after prison attack: police
- Huntley murdered 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in eastern England in 2002
- He suffered serious injuries when he was assaulted at Frankland maximum security prison in the northeastern English city of Durham on Feb. 26
LONDON: One of Britain’s most notorious child killers, Ian Huntley, died on Saturday following an attack in prison where he was serving a life sentence, police said.
Huntley murdered 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in eastern England in 2002, in a case that horrified the country.
Fifty-two-year-old Huntley suffered serious injuries when he was assaulted at Frankland maximum security prison in the northeastern English city of Durham on Feb. 26.
He “died in hospital this morning,” a spokesperson for the local police force said in a statement emailed to AFP.
A spokesperson for the government’s justice ministry said the double murder of Holly and Jessica “remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation’s history, and our thoughts are with their families.”
Huntley killed the two best friends after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in the village of Soham, Cambridgeshire, on Aug. 4 2002.
Their disappearance sparked a massive search involving hundreds of police officers and appeals for help.
A photograph of the two girls wearing matching Manchester United football tops became instantly recognizable to many Britons.
Their bodies were found almost two weeks later, dumped in a ditch several miles away.
Huntley, then a 28-year-old school caretaker, aroused the suspicion of police after he gave media interviews claiming to be concerned for the girls’ welfare.
He denied murdering them but was convicted at trial in 2003.
His girlfriend at the time, Maxine Carr a teaching assistant at the girls’ school, gave Huntley a false alibi and was jailed for perverting the course of justice. She now lives under a new identity.
Revelations that Huntley had been the subject of prior rape and sexual assault complaints led to the establishment of criminal checks for anyone working with children.
He had been attacked before in prison, most seriously in 2005 and 2010.
“A police investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing,” the spokesperson said, adding that prosecutors would consider bringing charges against his assailant.
