Alleged 9/11 mastermind reaches plea deal, avoids death penalty The alleged mastermind of the deadliest attacks ever on US soil Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other accused reached a plea deal with the US prosecutors, the Pentagon said on Thursday chennai l Friday l august 02, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 40 l LATE CITY EDITION The three were tortured extensively by the CIA. Their case has been delayed over whether the evidence extracted through torture was admissible in court. A plea deal avoids this problem Bridge rises but hope fades Seven more bodies recovered, toll touches 256; Army opens Bailey bridge to restore connectivity with affected areas; Rahul, Priyanka visit Wayanad Bill to strengthen management of disasters creates Lok Sabha heat P r e e t h a n a i r @ New Delhi Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra crossing a make-shift bridge during their visit to Chooralmala in Wayanad on Thursday | EXPRESS T o b y A n t o n y @ Chooralmala (Wayanad) THE Army on Thursday evening opened the 190-ft-long Bailey bridge at Chooralmala that could help speed up the search operations at upstream Mundakkai and Punjirimattom villages but hopes of finding more survivors at the landslide-hit areas in Wayanad faded on Day 3 of rescue efforts. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who visited the affected areas on Thursday said all survi, vors in Mundakkai have been rescued, indicating there is little hope of finding more people alive. During the day, search teams sifted through the rubble amid heavy rains and recovered seven more bodies, taking toll in the devastating tragedy to 256. Over 200 persons are still missing. The government tally as given by Revenue , Minister K Rajan, however, is 189. “The debris at Punjirimattom and Mundakkai has piled up like a mountain. Most houses have been completed destroyed. The express read 4 college students killed, 1 critical as car overturns Chennai: Four college students, including three girls, died and one more was critically injured after their car flipped multiple times and landed on the roadside on Thursday. The youth who was behind the wheel had lost control of the car, police said | P5 W IT H T H I S I S S U E CHENNAI’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 40 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) search and restoration efforts will be daunting and time-consuming, which would take more than a week,” an official at the Control Room said. As per preliminary assessment, 348 houses were damaged in the landslides. The pace of search operations at Mundakkai and Punjirimattom, which were cut off following the collapse of the bridge at Chooralmala, was slow till now because excavators could not cross the river. With the construction of the Bailey bridge, now heavy trucks carrying excavators and other equipment can reach the affected Above-normal rainfall TILL September: IMD The IMD has forecast normal to above-normal rainfall in August and September over most parts of the country except the northeast and adjoining areas of east India, Ladakh, Kutch and Saurashtra regions. This means there’s a high possibility of landslides and floods | P9 areas. On Thursday, four excavators were deployed in Chooralmala, three at Mundakkai and three at Punjirimattom, which remained inaccessible till Wednesday . “Different batches of Army, Navy, NDRF and Fire Force officials are deployed at the affected areas. Besides, several volunteer groups are also active. Over 5,000 people are engaged in the search operation alone,” said an official. Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra visited the landslide-affected areas at Chooralmala on Thursday They . also visited a hospital and community health centre in Meppadi. Calling the landslide a “national disaster”, Rahul said: “It is very difficult to speak to people in these circumstances because you really don’t know what to say to them. It’s been quite a difficult day for me, but we are going to try and help make sure that the survivors get what is their due.” Days after deadly landslides hit Wayanad, the Centre on Thursday introduced Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in Lok Sabha to strengthen the national and state disaster management authorities. The Opposition parties including the Congress and Trinamool Congress questioned the constitutionality of the proposed legislation and said it will undermine the federal structure of the country . The government said it has become necessary to amend certain provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to bring more clarity and convergence regarding the roles of authorities and committees working in the field of disaster management. The 2005 Act has been reviewed in consultation with all stakeholders, including state governments, it said. The bill, which was introduced in Lok Sabha by the minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai, confers statutory status to certain organisations like the National Crisis Management Committee that existed before Act came into force. It will provide for the creation of a disaster database at the national and state levels, make provision for the constitution of an “Urban Disaster Management Authority” for the state capital and large cities having municipal corporations, and make provision for the constitution of “State Disaster Response Force” by the state government. Congress lawmaker Manish Tewari said none of the entries in List 1 or List 2 of the Constitution dealing with the Central and state subjects deal with the issue of disaster management. Tewari suggested that the government should amend the concurrent list to have a proper entry to cover disaster management. SL navy vessel rams TN boat; 1 fisher dies, 1 missing M S T h a n a r a j @ Ramanathapuram A 59-year-old fisherman from Rameswaram died and another went missing after a Sri Lankan navy patrol vessel rammed their boat causing it to capsize in the Sri Lankan waters in the wee hours of Thursday. Two other fishermen from the capsized boat, who sustained injuries, have been rescued by the Sri Lankan authorities, sources said. The Ministry of External Affairs has registered its strong pro- test with the Sri Lankan Acting High Commissioner in New Delhi over the incident. A video of the two rescued fishermen requesting Chief Minister MK Stalin to bring them back to Tamil Nadu also surfaced on social media. CM has announced `10 lakh solatium to the family of Malaisamy, the deceased fisher man, and Ramanathapuram Collector Simranjeet Singh Kahlon handed over the cheque on Thursday evening. In his letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the CM urged the centre to ensure consular access, adequate medical care, and support to the injured, and bring them back to Tamil Nadu at the earliest. The CM has also requested the centre to expedite the process to bring back the mortal remains of the deceased fisherman to India. Official sources said nearly 400 fishing boats left Rameswaram on Wednesday night.  p7 Summer Games Big-hitters gone, but Swapnil shoots for the stars A T the shooting ranges, for emotion in shooting. The heart Swapnil Kusale recedes needs to keep still and that’s what into a cocoon and Swapnil did while securing blocks himself off India one more bronze at from the noise. On the Olympics. He was hearTNIE @ olympics ing the PA system but did Thursday when the , shooting final was on at the not pay heed to where he Chateauroux shooting cenwas positioned. The fiftytre, Swapnil shut himself odd Indian supporters were from the outside world. cheering him on. “I did not Indraneel Das The competition was inpay attention to what the Paris tense and Swapnil was seeMC was saying. But I could sawing; sixth, fourth, third, hear the Indian fans shoutsecond and third in the 50 m rifle ing and I shifted my attention to 3-position final. There is no place that. And I said I don’t want to dis- appoint them. I will have to win for them,” he said after the bronze. This is India’s first 3-position medal in the Olympics. A ticket collector in Indian Railways, Swapnil had a humble beginning. Hailing from a village 30 km away from the district of Kolhapur (Maharashtra), his journey took him from a nondescript village to global glory . Swapnil Kusale Soon after Swapnil’s medal, though, heart-breaks followed. Three, in fact. Before the Games began, three of India’s biggest medal hopes were Sift Kumar Samra (women’s 50 m rifle 3-position), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (men’s doubles badminton), P V Sindhu (singles badminton) and Nikhat Zareen (women’s 50 kg boxing). All four failed to progress on a largely disappointing day  . P15 They have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence 2003 When Khalid Sheikh was captured in Pak. He spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving in Guantanamo in 2006. A trusted lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, it was Sheikh’s idea to use planes as weapons in the 9/11 attacks | P13 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 ■ ■ Sub-classification of SCs by states valid, rules top court Majority ruling S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y By majority of 6:1, Supreme Court okays subclassification of SCs by states A seven-judge Supreme Court bench in a landmark ruling on Thursday empowered states to sub-classify groups within the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) to uplift the more socially and economically backward among them for reservation benefits. The majority 6:1 verdict set aside a 2004 judgment by a five-judge bench in the E V C h i n n a i a h c a s e, which had held that sub-classification was not permissible because SC/STs form homogenous classes. But the 6:1 ruling said the SCs are heterogeneous. However, sub-classification can be done only on the basis of quantifiable and demonstrable data of backwardness and representation in government jobs and not on whims or political expediency the bench said. , The verdict came on a batch of petitions against sub-classification laws in Punjab, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere, arguing Overrules 2004 judgment of five-judge bench in EV Chinnaiah case Points out historical and empirical evidence to establish that that SCs are socially heterogenous Says Article 14 permits subclassification of class which is not similarly situated To sub-classify, states must collect data on inadequacy of representation Wants exclusion of creamy layer from SCs too Dissenting judge says states cannot change Presidential List and tinker with Article 341 to provide reservation @ New Delhi they were not in sync with the Chinnaiah order. “Article 14 permits the subclassification,” the verdict authored by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud for himself and Justice Manoj Misra said. Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath, Pankaj Mithal and Satish Chandra Sharma wrote separate verdicts that concurred with the CJI. Justice Bela Trivedi was the lone dissenter. She said Parliament alone has the right to include or exclude castes in the SC list, adding states cannot tinker with it. The CJI said the state in exercise of its power under Articles 15 (non-discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth) and 16 (equality in public employment) of the Constitution is free to identify the different degrees of social backwardness and provide special provisions, such as quota. States can sub-classify SCs if (a) there is a rational principle for differentiation; and (b) the rational principle has a nexus with the purpose of sub-classification. ‘Verdict A recognition for Dravidian model’ Chennai: Chief Minister MK Stalin and leaders of various political parties welcomed the Supreme Court verdict that upheld the power of the states to sub-classify Scheduled Castes for reservation. In his tweet, Stalin said the SC verdict has come as yet another recognition for the social justice journey of the Dravidian model government. He recalled that former CM M Karunanidhi had brought in the 3% internal reservation for the Arunthathiyar community based on data gathered by a committee. Stalin also recalled that the bill for Arunthathiyar quota was moved by him | P4