photo: ap chennai l Monday l October 07, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l LATE CITY EDITION T20 World Cup: India women get the job done against pak After an upset loss against New Zealand, Harmanpreet & Co. enjoy relatively smooth sailing against neighbours on the back of a clinical bowling performance.... Arundhati, Shreyanka excel on bowling day Pakistan opted to bat first in Dubai but Renuka Singh and Deepti Sharma were on the money in the powerplay. The pacespin combo of Arundhati Reddy and Shreyanka Patil kept up the pressure, restricting Pakistan to 105/8. India got across the line but lie in fourth place thanks to a vastly inferior NRR. -1.217 Up against Sri Lanka and Australia next It’s likely that India need to win both their remaining games to guarantee their progression to semis. They face Sri Lanka, who beat India in Asia Cup final, on Wednesday and Australia on Sunday. The No. 3 spot remains a musical chair for India. Harmanpreet was one drop in the first match. On Sunday, it was Jemimah Rodrigues’ turn | P13 India’s Net Run-Rate after the Pakistan match 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 Beirut sees its ‘worst day’ as Israeli strikes intensify Iran grounds flights amid threat of attack; 50 dead in Gaza, Lebanon gau t ha m se lv ara j an @ Chennai The visual spectacle put up by the Indian Air Force at the air show on Marina Beach on Sunday was overshadowed by the gross mismanagement of authorities that left thousands of people struggling to leave the venue and resulted in five deaths. The deceased were identified as D John (56) of Korukkupet, Karthikeyan (34) of Tiruvottiyur, Srinivasan of Perungalathur, Mani (55) of Marakkanam and Dinesh. Hospital authorities are A gen c ies Iran on Sunday cancelled all flights till Monday amid concerns of Israel’s immediately retaliatory strike on Tehran’s October 1 missile attack on Tel Aviv. While Iranian media quoting officials said the flights have been cancelled due to operational restrictions, Tehran had earlier implemented restrictions on flights when it fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel. Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday intensified its bombardment of southern Beirut and northern Gaza, killing at least 50 people. The day also saw IDF unleash its heaviest bombardment on the Lebanon capital since it escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month. With October 7 marking the first anniversary of Iranbacked Hamas’s gruesome attack, West Asia watchers believe Israel is likely to step up its attacks to target the outfit’s sponsor Iran. Israeli officials have given ample indications in recent days that they are planning a Chaos at Marina air show: 5 dead, scores hospitalised Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut on Sunday | AP “significant strike” on Iran, possibly targeting its oil installations or nuclear sites, apart from military infrastructure. Israel has been pounding Lebanon and Gaza since Saturday night. Powerful explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs after midnight on Saturday, killing at least 25 people, authorities in Lebanon saiud. A BBC correspondent in the city described the night as “Beirut’s worst” since Israel started bombing the country two weeks ago. In Gaza, an Israeli strike on a mosque early on Sunday killed at least 21 people, Palestinian officials said. Displaced people were sheltering at the mosque that was struck near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another group of four persons were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town, AP reported. “We are in a new phase of the war,” the Israeli military said in leaflets it dropped over areas in northern Gaza. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones,” it said.  P11 principal customs commissioner M Mathew Jolly, in his two detailed investigation reports The Directorate of Revenue In- in January 2023 and September telligence (DRI) and Chennai 2024, alleged that the manufacCustoms have unearthed a tured gold jewellery was mis`941-crore scam, in which six declared as 22 carat and exportjewellers from Chennai had al- ed with the collusion of a group legedly diverted around 2,170 of customs officers, who had kg of gold under the pretext of acce pted huge bribes for exporting gold jewellery to Du- clearance. bai and Malaysia between 2020 Several jewellery manufacand 2022. turers in Mumbai, Having re gisKolkata, Rajkot press tered as exporters, and Chennai were clusive co-opted in this the jewellers procured thousands industrial-scale of kilogrammes of imported scam to both manufacture imiduty-free gold bars from RBI tation gold jewellery and divert nominated agencies, such as the pure gold bars illegally into banks and government bodies, the open market. The investigaunder the agreement that they tion showed that the six exportwould be used for manufactur- ers procured 2,507 kg of pure ing gold jewellery for export. gold but used only 337.02 kg to However, only 10% of the manufacture jewellery and digold was used to manufacture verted 2,170 kg worth `941 crore jewellery and the rest was di- into the black market. Nearly verted into the open market by 2,612 kg of imitation gold jewelallegedly selling it in black. lery was exported fraudulently , Chennai Air Cargo Complex the investigation alleged. P7 @ Chennai dELHI RANKED TOP AMONG 100 MOST EARNING RAIL STATIONs in India West Bengal’s Howrah and Chennai’s MGR central railway stations emerged as No 2 and No 3, respectively, in terms of footfalls and revenue in 2023-24 | P9 A N U R A A G S I N G H & D i l i p S ingh K shat ri ya @ Bhopal/Ahmedabad IN a joint operation, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Delhi have busted a drug factory in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and seized mephedrone (MD) and raw materials worth `1,814 crore, authorities said on Sunday . According to sources, the joint team raided a factory in amid security threats Yeshi se l i @ New Delhi With anti-minority sentiments running high in Bangladesh, a prominent Hindu organisation has decided to hold Durga Puja celebrations inside an auditorium. “Considering the volatility of the present situation, Durga Puja in Ramakrishna Mission will be held inside the auditorium as hardliners have issued warnings against making sound,” a senior activist for minorities in Dhaka told this newspaper. The activist said the Hindus are living in a state of fear in Bangladesh after recent incidents of targeted attacks on them and other minority groups. Though the present government has assured protection for puja pandals, none of those accused of attacking the homes and properties of the Hindus have been arrested, the activist said. “We feel the present regime doesn’t want any minorities to exist in Bangladesh. Hindus are being falsely implicated in criminal cases. But can we expect justice to prevail?” Professor Najmul Ahsan Kallimullah, a political commentator based in Dhaka, told this newspaper that, “The minority communities in Bangladesh are a troubled lot today. The present regime considers them as sympathisers of the Awami League.” In some areas, Puja committees have been reportedly asked to pay 5 lakh taka (INR 3.5 lakh) to set up puja pandals. n E X T h A R Y ANA C M Lobbying starts in Cong even before results P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi WITH less than 24 hours left for the Haryana assembly election results to be announced, the Congress party hopes to celebrate an early Diwali, going by the exit polls. However, it has an uphill task at hand —to nail down a chief mini s t e r ’s n a m e f r o m among multiple contenders and to contain the party’s problem of infighting. The exit polls on Saturday forecast a smooth win for the Congress with most pollsters predicting 55 of Haryana’s 90 seats - comfortably ahead of the halfway mark of 46. Even as the exit polls were out, hectic parleys began in the Congress camp to decide the next Chief Minister. Among the CM hopefuls are Rajya Sabha MP and exUnion minister Kumari Selja, for mer CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his son and Lok Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda, Rajya Sabha MP and AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, and state Congress chief Udai Bhan, a Hooda loyalist. Bhupinder Singh Hooda left for Delhi on Sunday evening where he will hold a meeting with the party leadership. On Monday, the veteran leader is likely to meet the senior leadership before he returns to his Rohtak residence. His arch-rival Selja, a prominent Dalit face of the party has , not shied away from projecting herself as the CM candidate. Asked who would be the CM if the Congress comes to power, Hooda on Saturday reiterated that there is a laid down procedure in the party, according to which “the opinion of the MLAs will be sought and the high command will decide”. Emergency care staff at the air show venue on Sunday swiftly carrying a person on a stretcher to administer first aid | Ashwin prasath Marina comes to a standstill Around 15 lakh people who were estimated to have attended the show were allowed to exit all at once. The crowd, resembling a huge procession made its way to the main junction, jamming up key roads. Even a few of the 40 ambulances had no space to move out NCB, Gujarat ATS bust Bhopal drug factory `941-cr scam: Six Chennai Bangladesh group to hold jewellers on the DRI radar Hindu Puja indoors Durga S iddhar t h Pra b hakar awaiting autopsy results to ascertain the cause of deaths. As the city witnessed severe heat, with Meenambakkam recording a high of 35 oC, the crowd suffered suffocation. Several thousands of people were stranded at the venue for over an hour as traffic came to a standstill after the 15 lakh estimated attendees were allowed to leave all at once from the exit points. With neither Law & Order nor Traffic police personnel in sight, the crowd, resembling a huge procession, made its way to the main junctions. P3, P4 & P7 ‘MLAs, high command will decide’ On whether Selja would become the next CM, Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, “This is democracy. Everybody should aspire. You can also aspire. But the MLAs will decide, the high command will decide” the Bagroda Industrial Area on the outskirts of Bhopal on Saturday and seized 907.09 kg of the banned drug following specific inputs from a person who was recently detained in Surat. A process was underway to manufacture a large amount of the contraband when the raid was carried out, sources added. Two persons identified as Amit Chaturvedi (57) from Bhopal and Sanyal Prakash Bane (40) of Nashik, Maharashtra were taken into custody . Bane was earlier arrested in 2017 in a MD drug seizure case in Maharashtra and served five years in jail. After his release, he conspired with Chaturvedi to manufacture and sell MD to make quick money The factory . was subsequently taken on rent and nefarious operations start- ed a few months ago. The joint raid by the Gujarat ATS and NCB also led to the seizure of around 5,000 kg of raw materials, including chemicals used for manufacturing MD. A preliminary probe suggested that the illegal unit had the capacity to manufacture 25 kg of MD per day officials said. , The Madhya Pradesh police was not officially informed about the raid, said a senior police official.