TIRUCHY l wednesday l march 27, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION FIVE chinese nationals killed in Suicide attack in NorthWest paK A vehicle loaded with explosives rammed into a bus carrying the Chinese nationals in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. It’s driver too died No outfit claims responsibility for attack Militants target Naval base in Baloch The vehicle carrying the Chinese engineers fell into a gorge after the bast and caught fire. Rescue workers reached the spot and put out the fire. The bodies of the Chinese nationals — four men and a woman — were being taken to Islamabad. The foreigners were working on the Dasu hydropower project. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack till now | P11 ■ ■ Pakistan security forces on Monday night foiled an attack at a naval air base in Turbat district of Balochistan, killing at least four militants. In the exchange of fire, one security personnel was killed Militants attacked one of the biggest naval air bases from three sides, but their attempts were foiled by Pakistan’s security forces dozen blasts were heard in Turbat town during the attack on Naval base CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI At least 6 missing after ship smashes key u.s. bridge 1 2 3 4 A large ship hit the Francis Scott Key bridge in the port of Baltimore at 1:27 am on Tuesday, causing it to collapse, sending cars and people plunging into the Patapsco River Talks with SAD fail, BJP to go it alone in Punjab Demand for assurance on farmers and Sikh political prisoners were the sticking points H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Efforts to stitch up an alliance between the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections broke down on Tuesday with the saffron party announcing its decision to go it alone. There was a similar collapse of talks in Odisha between the BJP and the ruling BJD a few days ago. The breakdown in Punjab was not about the seat-sharing ratio. The BJP wanted six of the 13 Lok Sabha seats while the SAD was willing to part with five. But an agreement was around the corner. The sticking points instead were the SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal’s insistence that the BJP offer some assurance to the protesting farmers so as to help his Akali party sell the alliance to its rural voter base. The SAD had snapped its alliance with the BJP in September 2020 after three farm laws were rammed through in Parliament, which triggered a massive nationwide agitation. The other demand was for some commitment on the release of Sikh political prisoners (Bandi Singhs). But the BJP refused to yield on both the hot button issues. Announcing his party’s decision, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar said, “The decision has been taken in the interest of a safe and secure border state. I am sure people will support the BJP in the June 1 election.’’ Badal hit back, saying the “Shiromani Akali Dal is not just a political party driven by number games, unlike some national parties. We are a 103-yearold movement with a clear vision and we have always stood by and for principles. That will continue to be our goal.” When the alliance talks were on, both Jakhar and former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh who is a national executive committee member of the BJP, had said building a SAD-BJP bond was the emotion of the people of Punjab. This will be the first LS polls since 1998 that both the BJP and SAD will contest separately. In the previous LS poll coalitions with the SAD, the BJP had contested from three constituencies. As for the 2022 assembly polls, they went it alone and got humiliating single digit scores of two (BJP) and three (SAD) in the 117-member House. BJP fields Turncoats in Himachal, Guj bypoll The BJP on Tuesday named six disqualified Congress MLAs as its candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly bypolls, triggering a rebellion by party leaders who expected the tickets. Former Himachal Pradesh minister and BJP leader from Lahaul and Spiti assembly constituency, Ram Lal Markanda, quit the party to protest the fielding of Congress rebel Ravi Thakur who had defeated him in the constituency in the last assembly elections. In Gujarat, four Congress turncoat MLAs, including former leader of opposition Arjun Modhwadia, were fielded by the BJP in the assembly bypolls. 8 workers fixing potholes on the 2.57-km long bridge and several cars fell into the frigid river below, at 80C. Two were pulled out; one seriously hurt. Search on for the rest The 948-ft ‘Dali’ container ship’s crew issued a ‘Mayday’ call before the accident, helping officials to slow traffic flow and prevent more vehicles from falling into the cold river Govt mum as US does a Germany, says it encourages fair legal process on Kejriwal y e s h i s e l i @ New Delhi The US on Tuesday became the second country after Germany to ‘encourage a fair legal process’ following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21. While the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had described the German foreign office spokesperson Sebastian Fischer as an interference in India’s internal affairs, it is yet react to the US comment. “We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” said a US State Department spokesperson on Monday to an email query by Reuters. The US Embassy in Delhi, too, has not reacted to the remark. A few days ago, a German foreign ministry official said Ke- k h a k i c o r r u pt i o n Phone tapping case goes to Telangana ACB S w e t h a v i m a l a M @ Hyderabad amid the political slugfest over Telangana’s phone tapping case, the state’s Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) is looking into the corruption charges against accused officials, sources said. The ACB’s move comes after revelations that apart from tapping phones, the accused officials extorted hundreds of crores from jewellers, realtors and hawala operators during the previous BRS rule. The accused officials allegedly used the extorted money to purchase villas and other real estate properties on the outskirts of Hyderabad. So far, three police officials have been arrested in the case. A local court on Tuesday adjourned the case to Wednesday on the petition filed by the police seeking five-day custody of the trio — former Special Intelligence Bureau DSP D Praneeth Rao and ASPs Bhujanga Rao and Tirupatanna. The accused allegedly tapped the phone conversations of the businessmen and used the audio clips to demanded money from them. The ruling Congress and the BJP accused the former K Chandrasekhar Rao government of tapping phones of not only Opposition parties but also the then finance minister T Harish Rao’s wife and MLC K Kavitha’s husband. Alleging that the ‘unconstitutional act’ was not confined to leaders and businessmen of Hyderabad, Congress leader from Mahabubnagar Srinivas Reddy requested the DGP to set up complaint cells at all district headquarters to receive complaints on phone tapping. l e ad i n g t h e pa c k AIADMK’s Erode candidate worth `653 cr P SRINI V ASAN @ Erode With total assets worth `653 crore, the AIADMK’s candidate for Erode parliamentary constituency Aatral Ashok Kumar, , is the richest contestant in the fray in Tamil Nadu so far. While his wife, Karunambika, has assets worth `70 crore, the 54year-old has declared assets for `583 crore in the affidavit filed along with his nomination papers on Monday . The native of Pudupalayam village in Kodumudi in Erode stated that his movable assets are worth `526.53 crore while those of his wife are worth `47.38 crore. He also declared AIADMK’s Aatral Ashok Kumar filing his nomination papers on Monday | Express immovable assets worth `56.95 crore while his wife has immovable assets worth `22.60 crore. However, the couple does not own any motor vehicles. While he has `10 lakh in hand, his spouse has `5 lakh. He also de- All 22 Indian crew members of the Maersk-operated ship are safe. The ship’s owner is Singaporebased Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, founded by Capt Rajesh Unni | P11 clared that he owns 10,100 gm of gold worth `5 crore and his wife has 10,600gm of gold worth `5.50 crore. Interestingly, he also has a `12 lakh home loan from a private bank. Most of the couple’s immovable properties are in Coimbatore, Erode, Kangeyam, Kumarapalayam, Dharapuram and Dindigul. Most of his movable assets are in the form of fixed deposits and savings in nationalised and private banks, investments in debentures, shares and mutual funds. According to the affidavit, his source of income is business and salary His . spouse, an architect, receives rent and salary . P5 `100 cr club member The next richest candidate, going by affidavits submitted so far, is the BJP’s Sivaganga candidate Dhevanathan Yadav who declared assets worth `304.92 crore. Yadav is the chairman and managing director of television channel Win TV jriwal is entitled to a fair and an impartial trial and can make use of all the existing legal remedies without restriction. The response of MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was caustic. “We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary he said. ,” Biased assumptions made on this account are most unwarranted, Jaiswal added. TN: Travel papers ready for 3 Rajiv case convicts to go to SL E X PRESS NEWS SER V ICE @ Chennai THE Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission has issued temporary travel documents to the three released convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case — Murugan @ Sriharan, B Robert Payas and M Jeyakumar — and they would be deported to their home country as soon as the Government of India clears them for travel. Additional Public Prosecutor R Muniapparaj made the submission before a division bench of Justices R Suresh Kumar and K Kumaresh Babu when a petition filed by Murugan came up for hearing. He had sought a direction to the Tamil Nadu Rehabilitation Director to issue him a duly authorised photo identity card to apply for travel documents. Muniapparaj produced a letter written to the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) on the matter by the Public department. According to the letter, the Sri Lankan Santhan had died waiting for clearance Santhan, one of the released convicts, recently died of liver-related complications even as necessary clearance was being processed for his travel back to Sri Lanka as he had requested. His body was flown to the island country. Deputy High Commission issued temporary travel documents valid till September 22, 2024 to the three Sri Lankan nationals. The Additional PP stated that as soon as the FRRO issues the necessary orders, the three men will be deported to Sri Lanka. Since the travel documents were issued, the question of issuing photo identity card did not arise, he told the bench. The bench disposed of the petition since no further order was required on the matter since the travel documents had been issued. At present, the three convicts have been held at the high security foreigners detention centre in Tiruchy . P5
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