TIRUCHY l saturday l april 26, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Russian general killed in car bomb as U.s. envoy meets Putin A Russian general was killed by a car bomb on Friday in the second such attack in four months; Russia pointed fingers at Ukraine for the hit signs of direct talks between kyiv, moscow local residents recount horror Friday’s bombing came just as US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss a US-brokered peace plan for the protracted Ukraine conflict. The meeting is their fourth encounter since February. Witkoff and Putin discussed the possibility of renewing direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv ■ ■ Footage from the Russian Investigative Committee showed the charred remains of a white car with its front section torn away Local residents in Balashikha, just outside Moscow, said they heard a loud blast at around 10:45 am (0745 GMT). “The explosion was very strong, it gave me heart pain,” Lyudmila, who lives nearby, said | P11 Dec 17 was when a similar bomb killed Lt General Igor Kirillov 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 Shah holds high-level meet to discuss ways to stop water flow into Pak, asks CMs to trace and send back Pakistanis in their states ‘Will not let a drop of water flow into Pak’ MUKESH R AN J AN @ New Delhi Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday held a high-level meeting with Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Paatil to chalk out the strategy to stop the flow of water from Indian rivers into Pakistani territory . Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Paatil said that the Centre has formulated a comprehensive plan to prevent the flow of water from Indian rivers into Pakistan. “A roadmap was prepared in the meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Three options were discussed in the meeting. The government is working on short-term, mediumterm, and long-term measures so that not even a drop of water goes to Pakistan. Soon, desilting of rivers will be done to stop the water and divert it,” Paatil said. It was also decided to inform the World Bank, the mediator of the Indus Water Treaty, of the suspension of the pact. Officials said the government also decided to raise the storage and operational capacity of SC raps Rahul for remarks on Savarkar S u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi IN a relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order of the Allahabad High Court refusing to quash summons against him in a defamation case for his remarks against V D Savarkar. The court, however, censured Gandhi for his “irresponsible” remarks against Savarkar. “Issue notice. Stay on impugned order (of the Allahabad High Court),” the two-judge bench headed by Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Manmohan said while cautioning Gandhi to not repeat such “irresponsible” statements. “Let us not mock our freedom fighters,” the bench said. During his Bharat Jodo Yatra at a rally in Maharashtra’s Akola district, on November 17, 2022, Gandhi had allegedly said that “V D Savarkar was a British servant who received a pension.” Aggrieved by this comment, advocate Nripendra Pandey had filed a complaint against Gandhi in Lucknow. dams on the rivers covered under the treaty, which governs water sharing of six rivers in the Indus basin between the two countries. On Thursday, India had formally communicated to Pakistan about its intent to suspend the Indus Water Treaty . Earlier in the day Shah called , up the chief ministers of all states and asked them to identify all Pakistani nationals in their respective jurisdictions and take immediate steps to ensure their prompt return to their country, sources said. Later, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan held a video conference with the chief secretaries of all states and directed them to ensure that all Pakistani nationals whose visas were revoked must leave India by the fixed deadline. The Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had on Wednesday decided to cancel all visas granted to Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were shot dead. E x pr e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Nilgiris/Chennai T’gana CM seeks revenge Pledging complete support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the Pahalgam terror attack, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy urged him to “launch an attack on Pakistan” and integrate Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) into the Indian Union. “it is the time for a strong reply,” he said Flights cancelled IndiGo has cancelled flights to Almaty and Tashkent due to the closure of Pakistan’s airspace. About 50 international routes operated by IndiGo may be subject to schedule adjustments, the airline said The house of Adil Thokar, linked to the attack, being demolished in Bijbhera, in Anantnag | PTI Houses of 2 Lashkar militants linked to terror plot razed f aya z w a n i @ Srinagar SENDING a loud and clear message that acts of terror will not be tolerated, the houses of two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, whose names figured during investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack, were demolished by security forces in Tral and Bij b e h a r a a re a o f s o u t h Kashmir. This is the first such instance in J&K in over three decades long militancy . The two militants were identified as Asif Sheikh Photos of TN airports shared online compromise security names similar to official airport handles. Although some of these Classified maps, interior lay- pages carry disclaimers stating outs of airport lounges, and they are unofficial, TNIE disphotographs taken from sensi- covered that at least one such tive operational areas of Facebook page displayed the ofTiruchy, Coimbatore, and other ficial contact details of a Tamil airports in Tamil Nadu are be- Nadu airport director, misleading widely circulated across so- ing the public into believing it cial media platforms, putting was an official handle. the state’s civil aviation sector Among the most alarming under a serious sefindings were runpress curity threat. A deway maps and phoclusive tographs of airtailed investigation by The New Indian craft from Express (TNIE) has uncovered restricted zones, including runmultiple instances of such con- ways and Air Traffic Control tents being uploaded and shared (ATC) towers. by users claiming to be aviation According to a former Reenthusiasts. gional Executive Director (RED) TNIE’s probe found over 30 of the Airports Authority of Inactive social media pages across dia (AAI), such images are highplatforms such as Facebook, ly sensitive, and their public Twitter, and Instagram, many circulation poses a grave secuof which are operating under rity threat.  P7 J o s e K J o s e p h @ TIruchy Pictures found on FB, X, Instagram Over 30 active social media pages across platforms share classified maps, interior layouts of airport lounges, photographs taken from sensitive operational areas of Tiruchy, Coimbatore, and other airports in Tamil Nadu express read 3 students drown in Aliyar river in Pollachi HC revives two DA cases against M R K Panneerselvam, wife & son Coimbatore: Three students of a private physiotherapy college in Chennai drowned in Aliyar of Pollachi on Friday after they got trapped in 10-foot-deep pit while bathing. The victims were among 25 students who took part in a cultural event at a college | P7 Chennai: The Madras HC on Friday ordered revival of two disproportionate assets cases booked against Agriculture Minister M R K Panneerselvam, his wife Senthamizhselvi, and son P Kathiravan. The court set aside orders of a Cuddalore court discharging the accused from the cases registered during AIADMK regime, and ordered trial to be completed in six months | P2 2 4 O c to b e r 1 9 4 0 - 2 5 A p r i l 2 0 2 5 Visionary behind India’s space achievements Mylswamy Annadurai K rishnaswamy Kasturirang an, for mer chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is no more. Starting as an Xray astronomer while growing up in positions, his scholastic services and accomplishments in the fields of science, technology and education have left an , indelible mark. It was during his tenure (1994-2003) that the Indian space programme smoothly graduated from the experimental Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan phase to the operational phase in the areas of earth observation satellites, communication satellites, and launch services. His visionary approach made ISRO boldly venture into commercial space, also leasing 10 transponders of INSAT-2E satellite to INTELSAT for $10 mil- V-Cs forced to skip meet: Ravi; minister refutes lion as early as in 1999. It is through this service that Indians were able to watch cable TV in regional languages and Indian TV prog rammes reached 47 countries. It was Kasturirangan’s historic lecture on National Technology Day in 1998 ideating a technical possibility of India placing a satellite around the Moon (Chandrayaan-1) using the PSLV launcher that germinated into a full-fledged project report in 2003. (The author former director ISRO , , Satellite Centre, worked with Dr Kasturirangan from 1982 to 2003) National space agency It was during his tenure that ISRO’s launch vehicles PSLV and GSLV were made operational, making ISRO a complete national space agency on the lines of advanced spacefaring countries from Monaghama area of Tral in Pulwama and Adil Hussain Thokar from Bijbehara area of Anantnag. Sources said the houses were blown up by security forces after planting IEDs. Their family members were evicted from the houses before they were demolished. Sources said both Asif and Adil’s name had cropped up during investigation in Tuesd ay ’s t e r r o r a t t a c k a t Baisaran, Pahalgam in which 25 tourists and a local resident were killed. While Adil was one of the three attackers involved in the attack, Sheikh is suspected to be involved in the conspiracy. Police released sketches of three attackers, including Adil, and announced a bounty of `20 lakh each. “It is a loud and clear message to militants and their sympathisers that such attacks will not be tolerated. This will act as a deterrent to prevent such attacks in future,” a security official said. He said there are clear cut orders to crush all those involved in the terror attack. Governor R N Ravi on Friday alleged that Chief Minister M K Stalin used police to deter Vice-Chancellors of state universities from participating in the pre-scheduled conference convened by him at the Ooty Raj Bhavan and claimed that the action was reminiscent of the Emergency days. When telephonic threats from Higher Education Minister (Govi Chezhiaan) to the V-Cs not to take part in the conference did not work, the CM used police, Ravi alleged, evoking sharp rebuke from Chezhiaan. The minister said the governor intentionally “played politics” despite the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the state government on the 10 bills re-adopted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly “If . the governor organised Tamil Nadu Governor the conference without re- R N Ravi | express specting the law, is it necessary for the V-Cs to do the same,” he asked. Speaking at the conference, Ravi said, “Unfortunately state universities are not partici, pating in this conference. Because they have informed me, even in writing, that they have been warned by the state government not to participate. As of now, one of our V-Cs is in a police station. Others who reached Udhagamandalam received midnight knocks on their hotel rooms by the secret police’s special branch.” P7