People wait to catch trains at a railway station in Mumbai on Monday. The tracks are covered in flood water. Heavy rain lashed Mumbai during early hours of Monday, flooding in many areas | PTI kozhikode l tuesday l july 09, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION 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 Modi, Putin hold Four jawans killed in Army convoy ambush informal talks ahead of summit F aya z W a n i @ Srinagar Terrorists ambushed an Army convoy on Monday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, killing four soldiers and injuring six others. It comes after the two-daylong twin encounters in Kulgam in south Kashmir ended on Sunday night in which eight people, including six terrorists and two soldiers, were killed. Sources said a band of heav- Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for winning a third consecutive term in office, as the two leaders hugged when they met in Moscow on Monday and spoke over a round of tea. “Welcome to Russia, my dear friend, very happy to see you,” said Putin. “Tomorrow we will have official talks, but today we will have an informal round like one does at home,” said Putin, who hosted a dinner in the prime minister’s honour. Modi thanked Putin for inviting him to his house. “I am happy to be at your house where we can sit and chit-chat. Thank you,’’ said Modi. The PM was received at the Moscow airport by Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dennis Manturov. While driving through Moscow, members of the Indian community waved at him, chanting ‘Modi, Modi’. This is Modi’s first visit to Moscow in five years (the last time was in 2019 when he visited Vladivostok). Modi and Putin will take part in the 22nd India Russia Summit on Tuesday . “Looking forward to further deepening the special and privileged strategic partnership between our nations, especially in futuristic areas of cooperation,” Modi posted on X after reaching Moscow. “The focus of the visit is the economic agenda, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at his official residence at Novo-Ogaryovo, in Moscow on Monday | PTI includes energy, trade, manufacturing and fertilisers. Besides, Modi will reiterate that a solution to the Ukrainian war cannot be found on the battlefield,’’ according to a source. On Tuesday, Modi will lay a wreath on the ‘Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’ followed by a visit to the Rosatom Pavilion. He will have a restricted meeting with Putin in the afternoon before delegation-level talks. The two leaders, however, will not make any statements to the press afterwards. “No joint communication with the media is foreseen. But we expect an extended exchange of views at both the private and extended sessions, which will largely compensate for the lack of statements to the media,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the state-owned TASS. ily armed terrorists ambushed the convoy on Machedi KindliMalhar road near Badnote village in Kathua district around 3.30 pm. The terrorists fired automatic guns and lobbed grenades towards the army vehicles. “In the attack, four soldiers including a Junior Commissioned Officer were killed and six sustained injuries,” an official said. After the ambush, there was Rahul meets violence victims in Manipur, urges PM Modi to visit P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday met displaced Meiteis and Kukis at relief camps in Manipur, and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the state and try to understand Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Churachandpur the situation there. “It is important relief camp in Manipur | PTI that the PM comes to Manipur, listens to the people, to try and understand what is going on here. After all, Manipur is a proud state of the Indian Union,” he told the media in Imphal. “…I request him to take one day two days of his , time and just come and listen to the people. It will comfort them. They all want him to come. Perhaps, the entire country wants him to visit Manipur,” he added. a brief exchange of gunfire before the terrorists slipped into a nearby forest. The injured were rushed to a military hospital. Doctors said the condition of three of them are critical. The Army, local police and the Central Reserve Police Force have launched a massive search operation to track down the terrorists. The team of elite para commandos rushed to the area to assist the security forces in the hunt for the terrorists.The security forces were using drones and other surveillance equipment to track down the terrorists, who are suspected to be part of a group whose two members were killed in an encounter by security forces in Kathua last week. Two terrorists and a CRPF jawan were killed in that attack. Immediately after the Monday’s attack, senior officers visited the area to take stock of the situation. Malayali expats’ Air Kerala gets Centre’s nod, gears for take-off AI S H W ARYA P RA B HA K ARAN @ Kochi Keralites’ long-pending demand for a low-fare flight to the Gulf has received a boost with Dubai-based Malayali entrepreneurs’ ‘ ir Kerala’ obtaining A a no-objection certificate (NoC) from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, India, (MoCA). Afi Ahmed and Ayub Kallada, co-founders of Zettfly Aviation, are behind the project, which focuses on “making air travel affordable and accessible”. “NoC is just the first step. Headquartered in Kochi, the company will operate domestic flights from Kerala. We will be using ATR 72-600 aircraft once we obtain an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) from MoCA. It will take another eight to nine months,” Afi Ahmed told TNIE over the phone. “Once we procure the aircraft, Air Kerala will operate regionally before it can operate international flights. Initially, our focus is to connect Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities with Tier 1 cities in south India,” said Ahmed. “We are planning to start operations with three ATR 72-600 aircraft,” ● More on P4 he said.  EXPRESS READ Attempts being made to defame PSC, says Pinarayi T’Puram: Dismissing the allegation that corrupt practices prevailed in the appointment of members to the Public Service Commission, CM Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday there have been attempts to defame the constitutional body. HC: Temple practices can’t be altered without thantri’s nod Kochi: Observing that ritualistic practice of a temple can be changed only with thantri’s consent, the HC quashed Koodalmanikyam Devaswom’s decision to allow Hindu artists other than Ammanoor family members to perform at the temple’s koothambalam. Make NEET disclosure on leak: SC to NTA, CBI S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday directed the CBI to file a status report on the probe into the NEET-UG paper leak case, sharply observing the sanctity of the examination process has been breached. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said if the segregation between the beneficiaries of the fraud and untainted candidates is not possible, then a retest has to be held. It directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) that conducted the test, to make full disclosures on the nature of the leak, the places where the paper was leaked, and the time lag between the leak and the conduct of the exam. The next date of hearing is July 11, Thursday . “If we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and the actual exam is limited, that will be a circumstance which will militate against the retest,” the CJI said. The bench proposed the constitution of a multi-disciplinary team comprising renowned experts to ensure measures are taken to obviate any further breach in NEET. “The court shall decide if someone else needs to be added to the committee to ensure it has a diverse pool of domain expertise and data analytics.”