Knife attack
Eight killed in China knife attack
A stabbing spree at a vocational school in Wuxi, located in eastern China, on Saturday resulted in eight deaths and 17 injuries, according to local authorities.
The incident occurred at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in Yixing, a smaller city within Wuxi, around 6:30 p.m. local time, the Yixing police reported.
The suspect, 21-year-old Xu, a student at the school, was arrested at the scene.
Authorities revealed that Xu had failed his exams and was upset about not graduating, as well as being dissatisfied with his internship pay. They said he chose to express his frustrations through the violent attack.
Videos shared on Western platforms like X showed the aftermath, with victims lying on the street and bystanders trying to assist. Meanwhile, Chinese social media platforms, such as Weibo, show only the police statement, with no images or footage of the event. This is likely due to the Chinese government’s censorship of content deemed sensitive or political. Additionally, Western social media and search engines, like Google, are often inaccessible in China due to the country’s strict internet regulations, known as the Great Firewall.
Read: Islamic State group claims responsibility for knife attack that killed 3 in Solingen, Germany
This marks the second deadly attack in less than a week. Earlier, a man rammed his car into people at a sports facility in Zhuhai, in southern China, killing 35 and injuring 43.
Random public attacks have been a growing concern in China. In October, a man was arrested for stabbing children at a school in Beijing, injuring five. In September, three people died in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai, and 15 others were injured. The suspect in the Shanghai attack had financial disputes and reportedly went to the city to “vent his anger.” That same month, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed while on his way to school in Shenzhen.
Sources: agency
1 month ago
HSC examinee killed in 'merciless' knife attack in Dhaka's Merul Badda
A Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) examinee was left to fight for his life, and two of his friends suffered injuries after a "swift, bloody and merciless" knife attack in the capital's Merul Badda Sunday, police said.
The deceased was identified as Satil, 20. The injured are 18-year-olds Shoayeb Hossain and Rupom Datta.
The incident took place around 7:30pm at Merul Badda DIT Project's Road 13.
Read: Man’s body found in Sylhet
Sayem Sikder, a local who took them to the hospital, said: "We rushed to the scene hearing screams and found Satil and Shoayeb critically injured."
"We took them to Asian Hospital first. Later, they were referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where Satil was declared dead around 9:30pm. The injured are now undergoing treatment at the hospital"
"We learned that they were repeatedly stabbed by a group of people, including someone called Rocky," Sayem said.
The body has been kept in the hospital morgue for an autopsy, Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of DMCH Police Outpost, said.
2 years ago
Khulna Sramik League leader hospitalised with serious injuries after knife attack
A Sramik League leader was hospitalised with serious injuries following a knife attack on him by unidentified men at his office in Khulna on Thursday, police said.
The injured Harunur Rashid is the convener of the new committee of the Jatiya Sramik League's Khulna city unit.
Two more people, including Member Secretary of Khulna City Sramik League Md Asaduzzaman, were also injured.
"Harun, Asaduzzaman and some Shimul were inside the Social Welfare office in the Darul Aman area beside Sonadanga kitchen market when some unidentified people stormed into the room and started stabbing Harun mercilessly with sharp weapons," Momtajul Haque, officer-in-charge (OC) of Sonadanga Model Police Station, said.
Read: Sylhet BNP politician stabbed to death
Asaduzzaman and Shimul were also injured at this time as they tried to save Harun, he added.
Harun was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital and is still not out of the woods.
Although Asaduzzaman and Shimul are no longer in precarious health, they are currently receiving treatment at the hospital.
2 years ago
Ninth-grader killed in 'merciless' knife attack in Dhaka's Shyampur
A 17-year-old schoolboy was stabbed to death by some miscreants in the capital's Shyampur area on Sunday, police said.
The victim was identified as Md Nayan Islam, son of Kamrul Islam hailing from Jhajar village of Mohammadpur Thana in Magura district. He was a student of class IX in RK Chowdhury School and College in the area.
Md. Bachchu Mia, in-charge of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) police outpost, confirmed the incident.
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He said the body was kept in the hospital morgue for an autopsy and the incident was reported to the concerned police station.
Deceased's father Kamrul Islam said that his son went to in Dholaipar Balur Math (sand field) area around 2:30pm. He suffered serious wounds after being repeatedly stabbed by unidentified attackers.
He was later rushed to DMCH where doctors declared him dead upon arrival.
2 years ago
Salman Rushdie ‘on the road to recovery,’ agent says
Salman Rushdie is “on the road to recovery,” his agent confirmed Sunday, two days after the author of “The Satanic Verses” suffered serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in New York.
The announcement followed news that the lauded writer was removed from a ventilator Saturday and able to talk. Literary agent Andrew Wylie cautioned that although Rushdie’s “condition is headed in the right direction,” his recovery would be long. Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and in an eye that he was likely to lose, Wylie had previously said.
“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humour remains intact,” Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie said in a Sunday statement that stressed the author remained in critical condition. The family statement also expressed gratitude for the “audience members who bravely leapt to his defence,” as well as police, doctors and “the outpouring of love and support.”
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called “a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack” at western New York’s Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center.
The attack was met with global shock and outrage, along with praise for the man who, for more than three decades — including nine years in hiding under the protection of the British government — has weathered death threats and a $3 million bounty on his head over “The Satanic Verses.”
“It’s an attack against his body, his life and against every value that he stood for,” Henry Reese, 73, told The Associated Press. The cofounder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum was on stage with Rushdie and suffered a gash to his forehead, bruising and other minor injuries. They had planned to discuss the need for writers’ safety and freedom of expression.
Authors, activists and government officials cited Rushdie’s bravery and longtime championing of free speech in the face of intimidation. Writer and longtime friend Ian McEwan labeled Rushdie “an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists” and actor-author Kal Penn called him a role model, “especially many of us in the South Asian diaspora.”
“Salman Rushdie — with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a Saturday statement. “Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear.”
Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family and has lived in Britain and the U.S., is known for his surreal and satirical prose, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” in which he sharply criticized then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Infused with magical realism, 1988′s “The Satanic Verses” drew ire from some Muslims who regarded elements of the novel as blasphemy.
Read: Author Salman Rushdie on ventilator after New York stabbing
They believed Rushdie insulted the Prophet Muhammad by naming a character Mahound, a medieval corruption of “Muhammad.” The character was a prophet in a city called Jahilia, which in Arabic refers to the time before the advent of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula. Another sequence includes prostitutes that share names with some of Muhammad’s nine wives. The novel also implies that Muhammad, not Allah, may have been the Quran’s real author.
The book had already been banned and burned in India, Pakistan and elsewhere when Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989. Khomeini died that same year, but the fatwa remains in effect — though Iran, in recent years, hadn’t focused on Rushdie.
Iran’s state-run newspaper, Iran Daily, praised the attack as an “implementation of divine decree” Sunday. Another hardline newspaper, Kayhan, termed it “divine revenge” that would partially calm the anger of Muslims.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the suspect, born nearly a decade after the novel’s publication, acted alone. A prosecutor alluded to the standing fatwa as a potential motive in arguing against bail.
“His resources don’t matter to me. We understand that the agenda that was carried out yesterday is something that was adopted and it’s sanctioned by larger groups and organizations well beyond the jurisdictional borders of Chautauqua County,” District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.
Schmidt said Matar got an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arrived a day early bearing a fake ID. The judge ordered Matar held without bail.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge, leaving him “hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks,” and stressed that Matar had the right to presumed innocence.
Barone said after the hearing that Matar has been communicating openly with him and that he would try to learn whether his clinet has psychological or addiction issues.
Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon, village mayor Ali Tehfe told the AP. Flags of the Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah, along with portraits of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, were visible across Yaroun before journalists visiting Saturday were asked to leave.
Hezbollah spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment. Lebanon’s top Shiite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Kabalan vilified Rushdie in a speech Sunday without directly endorsing the attack, saying the author was “the cheapest and worst personality to deal with history and heritage by fabricating lies and hypocrisies.”
In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed by the AP praised the attack on an author they believe tarnished the Islamic faith, while others worried it would further isolate their country.
Read: Author Salman Rushdie stabbed on lecture stage in New York
A state trooper and a county sheriff’s deputy were assigned to Rushdie’s lecture, and police said the trooper made the arrest. But afterward, some longtime visitors to the bucolic vacation colony questioned why there wasn’t tighter security given the history of threats against Rushdie.
On Friday, an AP reporter witnessed the attacker stab or punch Rushdie about 10 or 15 times. Reese, the moderator, told CNN he initially thought the attack was a prank.
News about the stabbing has led to renewed interest in “The Satanic Verses,” which topped bestseller lists after the fatwa was issued in 1989. As of Sunday morning, the novel ranked No. 11 on Amazon.com’s list.
One of Rushdie’s ex-wives, the author and television host Padma Lakshmi, tweeted Sunday that she was “relieved” by Rushdie’s prognosis.
“Worried and wordless, can finally exhale,” she wrote. “Now hoping for swift healing.”
2 years ago
Protests held over knife attack on Jubo League leader in Barguna
Demonstrators on Saturday held a human chain and rally protesting a knife attack on Imam Hasan Shipon, Chairman of Sharishabari union and local Jubo League leader in Betagi upazila.
4 years ago
Man arrested for killing wife, 2 others in Narsingdi
A man was arrested in Narsingdi for reportedly murdering his wife and two others during a family feud at Kumardi in Shibpur upazila on Sunday.
4 years ago
Physician stabbed by ex-colleague in Khulna
A physician of Fultola health complex came under a knife attack reportedly by his former colleague at his chamber in Fultola upazila on Monday morning.
4 years ago