KOCHI l wednesday l august 05, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION India distances itself from Hasina’s planned press event Hasina will hold her first interaction with press on Wednesday evening, two years after she fled Dhaka following the collapse of her government Response to bangladesh seeking clarity no involvement from indian side: mea Dhaka on Monday sought a clarification from the Indian side on Hasina’s planned press meet, with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s (L) foreign affairs adviser M Humayun Kabir saying that the public interaction from Indian soil could definitely undermine the positive momentum witnessed in the bilateral ties between the two nations in recent months ■ ■ “The interaction is being organised by a private media entity. India has no involvement in it, neither does it endorse views that may be expressed at the forum,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and other Awami League leaders including Shakib Al Hasan are likely to speak at the conference Aug 5, 2024 is when sheikh Hasina, 78, came to India after fleeing Dhaka 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 Pak ramps up artillery muscle with Chinese SH-15s J a v a r i a Ra n a @ New Delhi Udhayanidhi Stalin being arrested from his Chennai residence on Tuesday | P Jawahar Udhaya arrested, released after tense standoff HC orders bail on same day in ‘vulgar remark’ case; 20,000 DMK cadre detained across TN residence in Neelankarai. Senior DMK leaders were present Tamil Nadu was caught in a when the police arrived. tense standoff for 12 hours as Meanwhile, the DMK moved Leader of the Opposition Ud- the Madras High Court seeking hayanidhi Stalin was arrested anticipatory bail. Even as Jusfrom his residence in Chennai tice GK Ilanthiraiyan had iniand taken to Thanjavur for tially directed that no action questioning, before being re- should be taken till the case is leased by the police on Tuesday to be heard at noon, Udhayani. The arrest came a day after he dhi was arrested around 11 am allegedly made a “double-mean- and taken to Thanjavur in a poing” remark alluding to a popu- lice van. The arrest triggered lar actor at a protest meeting for protests by hundreds of cadre Cauvery water in Thanjavur on and functionaries, which the Monday. Following 90 police brought to an minutes of questioning end using force. at the Sengipatti police “I will not be threatstation, Udhayanidhi ened by such arrests,” I will not be was granted station Udhayanidhi told rethreatened by bail around 8.15 pm as porters, while being such arrests. ordered by the Madras taken in the police van, They have High Court. terming the arrest a diaccused me of The police action saying what I did version tactic of the came on a complaint ruling TVK to evade renot speak filed at Thanjavur East sponsibility over the Po l i c e S t a t i o n by Udhayanidhi Stalin Cauvery crisis and MeBairavi Shankar Ramkedatu project. “They an, TVK’s Central District have accused me of saying what Women’s Wing organiser for I did not speak,” he said. Asked Thanjavur. Udhayanidhi was if the arrest amounted to politibooked under nine sections of cal vendetta, he said, “I don’t BNS, Tamil Nadu Prohibition think they have so much brain. of Harassment of Women Act, They are a bunch of idiots.” Amid protests at nearly 400 and Information Technology places, including road blockAct, 2000. Tension began with the ar- ades and burning of CM C rival of a joint team of the Joseph Vijay’s effigy, which reThanjavur Town East and the sulted in police detaining nearNeelankarai police (Chennai) ly 20,000 cadre, the LoP reached around 8 am at Udhayanidhi’s Thanjavur around 6.30 pm. E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai Pakistan is expanding its Chinese artillery inventory on a previously unreported scale, having more than doubled its SH-15 procurement to over 500 155 mm self-propelled howitzers, with more than 200 already inducted into service, as it rebuilds and strengthens the artillery arm it relied on during Operation Sindoor, sources in the defence and security establishment told this newspaper. More than 200 of the truckmounted 155 mm/52-calibre guns supplied by Chinese defence major NORINCO have already entered service, allowing the Pakistan Army to raise around 12 artillery regiments, each comprising 18 guns organised into three batteries of six guns, the sources said. Before this, only a 2019 contract for 236 SH-15 guns had been publicly documented. The inductions, however, have not translated into a matching forward deployment. “A sizeable number have been kept in reserve. The figure of 250 guns along the border being cited is a projected inventory, not the actual forward posture,” a source clarified. During Operation Sindoor, Pakistan employed Chinese-origin artillery systems including in Many howitzers in reserve While several reports suggested that around 250 SH-15 guns are deployed opposite India, a sizeable number remain in reserve, with the 250 figure reflecting Pakistan’s projected inventory rather than its actual deployment along the Line of Control, sources said cross-border firing targeting civilian areas in Rajouri and Poonch, according to Indian officials. Islamabad has since accelerated its artillery modernisation, with the SH-15 emerging as the backbone of its future self-propelled gun fleet. The SH-15 is claimed as an export variant of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s PCL-181 mounted howitzer. Mounted on a 6x6 Shaanxi high-mobility truck chassis, the “shoot-and-scoot” artillery system has claimed speed of up to 90 kmph and can fire NATO-standard 155 mm ammunition to ranges of about 40 km. Additionally rocket-assisted , projectiles reportedly extend its reach beyond 50 km. Deliveries under the original contract began in January 2022. Sources added that Pakistan has also secured transfer of technology (ToT) from China, paving the way for eventual manufacture of the SH-15 at Heavy Industries Taxila. India’s artillery modernisation, meanwhile, continues to lag on timelines. The defence ministry signed a `6,900-crore contract in March last year with Bharat Forge and Tata Advanced Systems for 307 Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems (ATAGS), developed by DRDO. Deliveries are yet to begin, with the first regiment of 18 guns expected to enter service only around February 2027 after completion of mandatory product-model trials. With a strike range of nearly 48 km, the ATAGS will progressively replace the ageing 105 mm Indian Field Guns and 130 mm M-46 guns across 15 regiments. Until then, the K9 Vajra-T remains the Army’s only self-propelled 155 mm artillery system fielded in significant numbers, alongside the Dhanush and Sharang towed guns and the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher system. The Army also ordered another 100 K9 Vajra-T guns from Larsen & Toubro in December 2024, adding to the 100 already in service. E x p r e s s Re a d 1,365 in Vigilance data bank on tainted ‘babus’ T’Puram: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has revised its data bank on suspected corrupt government servants, adding 665 new names to it, taking the total number to 1,365. The vigilance repository last year had around 700 names. The number began increasing this year following enhanced surveillance and intelligence gathering from the field to complement ‘Operation Zero’ — a special drive against institutional corruption. P4 Kerala to get dedicated AYUSH university T’Puram: Decks are being cleared for the establishment of a university for Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) systems of medicine in the state. As a preliminary step, the state has constituted a committee to prepare the draft ‘Kerala AYUSH University Bill’. P5 16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express 17 hurt as AI flight suffers mid-air altitude drop s l a l i t h a @ New Delhi A total of 17 people, including four cabin crew members, on an Air India flight from Phuket to Delhi, sustained injuries on Tuesday when the plane suffered a sudden loss in altitude while cruising at 36,000 feet. The aircraft with 137 passengers, including three infants, and eight crew members, landed safely at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Inter national Airport around 11 am. The Airbus A320 aircraft was grounded by aviation regulator DGCA, which has launched a probe. One of the crew members sustained se- Detailed check The Union aviation ministry said the aircraft has been moved to the hangar and the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder have been secured for detailed examination. Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu visited the injured in a hospital vere injuries in the sudden fall which sent the plane down by 300 feet, said a DGCA source. The aircraft is believed to have suffered substantial damage. The AI 2379 took off at 8.27 Injured flyers (L) being taken to hospital; and a ripped luggage section door | X am (local time) from Phuket and landed at Delhi’s T3 at 11.07 am, 43 minutes before schedule. A DGCA official attributed the accident involving AI 2379 bearing the registra- tion VT-EXO to “a suspected transient technical fault”. A source at Delhi airport said the incident occurred outside the Indian airspace probably around 10.30 am (India time). “The airport received a call after the incident about people requiring medical assistance on landing and we had the ambulance vans on standby to assist the passengers. The medical centre inside the airport (Medanta) treated the flyers initially and they were later sent to Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj.” In a statement, the airline said, “AI 2379 experienced a sudden loss of altitude during cruise. After the event, the aircraft continued normally .” A passenger told a news agency she saw her sister thrown up from her seat. “We thought we would die.” ‘Ammathottil’ gets its 1,000th baby—Sahasra State logs zero UAPA cases this yr as terror, Maoist threats wane virtual A n n a J o s e @ T’Puram Queue system begins AT Guruvayur temple Guruvayur Devaswom’s trial run of virtual queue darshan system received encouraging response, with over 1,450 using the facility on launch day | P2 “You stand in front of a mother — a refuge for infants. Have you decided that you can’t bring up the child in your hand? If so, let us take care of the child... Just keep the child in the cradle!” This message has been playing out at the ‘ mmathottil’ A for nearly two and a half decades, offering a final resort to hundreds of mothers and infants who would have otherwise found it difficult to face the world. In the early hours of Tuesday , the cradle at the facility in Of the 14 Ammathottil facilities, one in Tvm has received the most no. of children - 667 Thiruvananthapuram moved once again, as a baby girl made it to the safe shelter. The fiveday-old girl, weighing 2.57 kg, was not just another infant finding shelter. She was the 1,000th child received at Ammathottil centres across the state under the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare, since the launch of the initiative 24 years ago in the state capital. Marking the historic moment, she has been named ‘Sahasra’, which in Sanskrit means 1,000. “The first child we received in December 2002 was a girl. We named her Nithya. The 100th b a by w a s a n o t h e r g i rl , Sathashree. Now, we have a girl as the 1,000th guest. Just as we receive more girls, more of them are getting adopted too,” said G L Arun Gopi, general secretary of the council. Tuesday marked yet another joyous occasion for the council as three children were gifted a new life, being adopted by families. “Three girls, each a year old, began their new lives with their families in the United States, Sweden and Thrissur. We handed the children over to the parents on Tuesday said P ,” Sasidharan of the Child Welfare Council. When the first Ammathottil was established on November 14, 2002, the aim was simple: no child should be abandoned without care and hope, and parents unable to raise their children could leave them there, knowing the child would re● More on P4 ceive better care.  DPDP A C T Users face outage as WhatsApp begins age-confirmation tests R A KESH K U M A R @ New Delhi Messaging app WhatsApp has started testing a new feature in India to confirm users’ age as it prepares to comply with the upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act. The Meta-owned platform said this feature will not change the user experience or the way WhatsApp works. The DPDP Act, which will kick in on May 13, 2027, outlines stringent provisions for plat- forms such as WhatsApp and X in processing the personal data of children under 18. Under the Act, these platforms will be required to obtain verifiable consent from the child’s parent or lawful guardian before any personal data of the child can be processed. The rules prohibit platforms from engaging in activities that could har m children. Also, there is a Meta’s global team to hold talks with govt today Meta’s global team, including public policy chief Joel Kaplan, will reach India on August 5 to meet government representatives. The Centre had summoned Meta’s global executives after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post addressing the youth was briefly restricted on Facebook ban on tracking or behavioural monitoring of children, and platforms can’t direct targeted ads at children. IT Secretary S Krishnan said WhatsApp’s move “might be from the context of DPDP Act... But we will have to check with them... because we are approaching the deadline...” On Monday, several WhatsApp users, including many in India, found their accounts placed under “review” for up to 24 hours, leaving them unable to use the platform. The issue surfaced around 8 pm IST, with affected accounts displaying a message stating that they were under review without any prior warning from the platform. The temporary account reviews come at a time when WhatsApp is facing increased scrutiny from the government over its proposed username feature, which would allow users to communicate without sharing their mobile numbers. fences themselves have declined,” he told TNIE. Kerala has not registered a According to Vijayan, Kerasingle case under the Unlawful la witnessed the peak of UAPA Activities (Prevention) Act cases around 2016. Since then, (UAPA) -- the country’s prithe influence of terrorist mary anti-terror law -- in and Maoist groups has the first five months of weakened considerably , 2026, marking the steepleading to a steady deest decline in nearly a cline in cases and just decade and signalling three registrations in what security agencies 2025. see as the weakening of He attributed the UAPA terrorist and Maoist acchange to sustained cases tivity in the state. multi-agency efforts, 2021 15 Data tabled in the including coordinated Kerala Assembly show operations with neigh2022 26 UAPA cases have fallen bouring Kar nataka 2023 32 consistently over the and Tamil Nadu in tripast three years—from junction forest areas, 2024 5 32 in 2023 to five in 2024 p r o a c t ive we l f a r e 2025 3 and three in 2025. As of measures by the state May 31 this year, not a government in tribal 2026 single case had been settlements, and con(Till May) 0 registered under the stant surveillance by Act. the state intelligence Additional Director wing and the anti-terGeneral of Police (Law and Or- rorism squad (ATS). der) P Vijayan said the fall in UAPA Review Authority registrations reflects a genu- chairman Justice P S Gopiine decline in offences attract- nathan said the trend reflects ing the stringent anti-terror both effective policing and law. “UAPA is an offence-spe- the shrinking operational cacific law. The number of cases pacity of banned organisa● More on P4 has come down because the of- tions.  A b h i r a m i A n i l @Kochi