cargo for pak n-programme seized The ship was carrying a dual-use Computer Numerical Control machine vessel from China HUBBALLI l sunday l march 03, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 26 l CITY EDITION Customs officials alerted defence authorities about the Maltaflagged merchant ship. The cargo was halted on January 23 for inspection. Investigation showed that it was shipped by Taiyuan Mining Import and Export and was meant for Cosmos Engineering in Pakistan | P8 22,180 kgs is the weight of consignment seized in mumbai 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 Cops trace cafe bomber, CCB to investigate case Modi, Shah in BJP’s first list of 195 candidates E x press Ne w s S er v i c e @ Bengaluru 4 dropped in Delhi; Sushma’s daughter gets in; Rajeev Chandrasekhar fielded from T’puram RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were among the 195 candidates the BJP announced in its first list for the Lok Sabha polls. Modi, Shah, and Singh will seek repeat mandates from Varanasi, Gandhinagar and Lucknow, respectively . There was a major shake-up in the Delhi list as the party dropped four of its five sitting MPs. The axe fell on Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, Meenakshi Lekhi and Harsh Vardhan, but Manoj Tiwari got to contest from North East Delhi. The party fielded Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj from New Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi, MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi, Praveen Khadelwal from Chandni Chowk. Also, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur was dropped from Bhopal. The most interesting candida- ture was of Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram, where Shashi Tharoor is the sitting Congress MP Contrary to speculation, the . BJP stayed with Smriti Irani from Amethi. The first list has 47 candidates, who are under 50 years of age, besides 28 are women. BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawade said 57 of the 195 candidates belong to OBC, while 27 to the SC and 18 to the ST communities. Anil Antony — son of Congress stalwart A K Antony — has been fielded from Pathanamithitta in Kerala. Union minister V Muraleedharan will enter the fray from Attingal. Former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan will enter the fray from Vidisha, while Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from Guna. In all, 34 Union ministers figure on the first list. Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh has been fielded from Asansol to take on TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha. The list included Hema Malini, Ravi Kishan and Dinesh Nerahua. Karnataka BJP candidates’ list by next week The BJP is expected to announce the names of its candidates from Karnataka for the Lok Sabha polls within a week. The Karnataka unit will meet on Sunday to shortlist names. “We had assigned two observers to each Lok Sabha constituency, who have interacted with local leaders and come up with three to five names of probable candidates,” BJP state president BY Vijayendra said. Additional Commissioner of Police (East) Raman Gupta briefs Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, during his visit to The Rameshwaram Cafe’s Brookefield branch in Bengaluru on Saturday | Allen Egenuse J We will rise again like a phoenix. Such incidents will make us stronger. We firmly believe that no force can dampen the spirit of our nation. We have decided to reopen our Brookfield outlet within a week of the unfortunate incident, which is on the auspicious day of Mahashivratri (next Friday) — Raghavendra Rao, Co-founder and CEO, The Rameshwaram Cafe A day after the bomb blast at The Rameshwaram Cafe in the city, police officers investigating the case have zeroed in on the suspect aged between 30 and 35 after analysing the CCTV footage. The case has been handed over to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) for investigation under ACP Naveen Kulkarni. In the footage, the alleged bomber is seen wearing a shirt, black trousers and black shoes. Carrying a black backpack and holding a cell phone with his left hand, the suspect entered the cafe at 11.34 am and left by 11.50 am. The police suspect that the alleged bomber might be part of an organised gang that had done a recce of the place earlier. The suspect is seen ordering food at the cash counter of the cafe by paying cash. After eating rava idlis, he is seen hurriedly leaving the cafe after placing the bag containing t h e IE D n e a r t h e w a s h basin closet. According to sources, the accused had taken enough precautions to conceal his identity by wearing a cap and a mask. He is said to have set the timer of the IED at 12.55 pm so that he had enough time to leave the city and target more people as it was lunch time. The investigating officers are probing all angles, including a possible business rivalry  P5 . Tripartite pact to end Tripura tribal row P rasa n ta M a z um d ar @ Guwahati Prashant to be our guest in Hyderabad today The ace political strategist will participate in an interaction at ITC Kakatiya Hotel in Begumpet from 4 pm to 6 pm | P5 THE Centre on Saturday signed an agreement with the Tripura government and the state’s principal opposition party the , TIPRA Motha, towards finding a solution to the problems faced by the state’s indigenous tribal population–Tiprasa. The pact was signed in New Delhi after a series of meetings between the Centre, TIPRA Motha and other stakeholders. It was agreed to resolve all issues relating to history, land and political rights, economic development, identity, culture and language of the indigenous people. It was also agreed to form a joint working group to work out and implement the mutuallyagreed points in a time-bound manner. Till then, all stakeholders will refrain from resorting to any form of protest or agitation in order to maintain a conducive atmosphere. Union home minister Amit Shah, who was present during the signing of the agreement, said it was a historic day for Tripura. “With this agreement, we have honoured history, corrected mistakes in history and accepted the realities of today Shah said. Chief ,” Minister Manik Saha was also present when the tripartite agreement was signed. “Nobody can change history but we can always move forward by learning from mistakes and keeping in mind today’s realities. I am happy that TIPRA Motha and all tribal parties played a constructive role in this direction,” he said. Saturday’s signing of the agreement followed TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma’s fast-unto-death stir. He was giving a speech on Wednesday during a stir demanding “Greater Tipraland” state, when he got a call from Delhi inviting him for talks. e x p r e ss r e a d RLD’s Jayant Singh fortmally joins NDA New Delhi: Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Jayant Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda on Saturday, as he formally joined the ruling National Democratic Alliance. WITH THIS ISSUE Pay Attention PLUS 12 PAGES