villupuram l saturday l may 17, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION IPL RESUMES AFTER BREAK DUE TO BORDER TENSIONS Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Kolkata Knight Riders in Bengaluru today. The league was temporarily suspended on May 8 RCB’s Virat Kohli during a practice session on Friday | Vinod Kumar T Matches in six venues, Final on June 3 DEPLETED SQUADS FOR SEVERAL TEAMS Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Mumbai will host the remaining 12 matches, with venues for the play-offs yet to be decided ■ ■ Due to forecast of rains in Southern India, IPL decided against hosting matches in Chennai and Hyderabad, with Bengaluru hosting two matches | P11 ■ ■ Several IPL teams will have depleted squads in the home stretch because of important assignments like the WTC final. South African players, for example, will not feature in the playoffs However, sides have been allowed to name ‘temporary’ replacements to supplement their roster. Mumbai will be one of the hardest hit side 17 NO OF REMAINING TIES (12 LEAGUE, FOUR PLAY-OFF FIXTURES & FINAL) 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 Fresh Taliban attempt to normalise ties with India J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi THE Taliban-led government in Afghanistan is making a fresh push to normalise relations with India as part of its broader campaign for international legitimacy, sources familiar with the development said. Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s phone call with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday was the highest-level contact between New Delhi and Taliban since the group seized power in August 2021. “The phone call ahead of Muttaqi’s scheduled visits to Iran and China signals Kabul’s growing interest in re-engaging India on critical bilateral issues,” said a source. These include trade facilitation, visa processes, the repatriation of Afghan prisoners, and strengthening collaboration on the strategic Chabahar Afghan Foreign port — a key Minister Amir project that InMuttaqi dia has backed to enhance regional connectivity and helping landlocked Afghanistan get sea access bypassing Pakistan. “There is a consistent conversation between Indian and Taliban officials,” a source said. This includes a meeting between Muttaqi and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in Dubai in January apart from a re, cent visit to Kabul by an Indian diplomat overseeing Afghanistan relations, shortly after the Pahalgam terror attack. Taliban officials strongly condemned the Pahalgam attack and dismissed Pakistani military re por ts alle ging Indian missile strikes on Afghan soil as “baseless.” These efforts are part of a broader Taliban effort to distance itself from regional instability and present a more responsible image on the world stage. Beyond India, Muttaqi is expected to visit Tehran and Beijing in the coming weeks. Teams to visit 40-50 countries, many of them Islamic, to expose Pak terror footprint Mega diplomatic push via multi-party teams rajnath: Pak using IMF money for terror P r ee t h a N a i r a n d r a jes h K um a r T h a ku r @ New Delhi D i l i p S i n g h K s h at r i ya With the Centre set to send nearly a dozen multi-party delegations to various important countries to exert diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, it was learnt that the lists of Opposition and ruling coalition’s MPs were prepared by the Prime Minister’s Office and conveyed to respective political parties. While MPs from various political parties were consulted by Union minister Kiran Rijiju, sources said the selection was done based on certain parameters, such as domain knowledge, articulation skills and representation of women and Muslims. The delegations will brief the hosts on Pakistan’s role in perpetrating cross-border terror in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor and the efforts by some countries to hyphenate India and Pakistan. “There will be a briefing by the MEA before we leave. We may also present dossiers on Pakistan’s links to the terror attacks,” said an MP . The delegation may travel INDIA on Friday called upon the International Monetary Fund to reconsider its $1 billion assistance to Pakistan, stressing that Islamabad can use it for funding terror. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who arrived at the Bhuj Air Force station Friday said India does not want , funds it gives to the IMF to be used to create a terror infrastructure in Pakistan. “India would like the IMF to Rajnath Singh reconsider its assistance of $1 billion to Pakistan and refrain from giving any kind of assistance in future,” he said. Singh said Pakistan has started rebuilding its destroyed terror infrastructure, “Pakistan plans to divert public funds — roughly `14 crore — to Masood Azhar of JeM,” Singh said, apart from giving financial aid to LeT and JeM. express read Prez reference: TN plans broader fight Coimbatore: TN will consult CMs and leaders of other states on President Droupadi Murmu seeking SC’s opinion on whether timelines can be imposed for Guvs and President on dealing with state bills, CM Stalin said | P5 ED raids Tasmac MD in `1,000 crore scam Chennai: ED on Friday searched 10 places, including house of Tasmac MD S Visakan as part of its probe into the alleged `1,000 crore scam in the government-owned liquor marketing company | P5 Voda’s SOS to govt: Need help on AGR dues, else will have to shut shop RA K E S H K U M AR @ New Delhi Vodafone Idea (Vi) has said it will be forced to shut shop if the government’s help. India’s third-largest telecom operator has urged the Centre to waive its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, warning that it may not be able to continue operations beyond FY26. According to sources, the telco has sought the government’s intervention to meet AGR obligations and mitigate insolvency risk. Vi has also warned that the value of the government’s equity stake could fall to zero, resulting in no recovery on the `1.18 lakh crore of spectrum dues. Currently Vi’s total liabilities are pegged at `2 lakh crore, , including `1.19 lakh crore in spectrum usage charges and `83,400 crore in AGR dues. The company is required to pay `18,000 crore annually in AGR dues over the next six years. According to Vi, this figure exceeds its operating cash flows, which have averaged between `8,400 crore and `9,200 crore over the past three years. The government had in March converted `36,950 crore of the firm’s dues into equity, increasing its stake to 49%. Meanwhile, the beleaguered firm has filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking waiver of `30,000 crore in AGR dues, pertaining to interest, penalty, and interest on penalty components. Vi’s fresh petition comes in the wake of the SC’s ruling in February rejecting a batch of pleas by several telcos against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s formula to calculate AGR. The SC upheld the DoT’s calculation, which included telcos’ revenue from non-telecom businesses as well and not just core telecom operations. According to Vi, timely support from the Government of India is needed on AGR relief, otherwise the ongoing discussions with banks for funding will stall. @ Ahmedabad Union home minister Amit Shah with others during the inauguration of an upgraded multi agency centre for intelligence sharing, in New Delhi on Friday | PTI to 40-50 countries and are likely to start from May 22 or 23 for a period of 10 days. The focus will be more on Islamic countries, said an MP. The government is considering 7-8 eight delegations with 5-6 members each, said a source. The likely representatives from Congress will be Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Salman Khurshid and Amar Singh, while DMK’s Kanimozhi, CPI (M)’s John Brittas and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi are likely to be part of the delegations. While former Union minister Anurag Thakur, Aparajita Sarangi and Samik Bhattacharya and V Muralidharan are among the BJP MPs, TMC’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay , JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, BJD’s Sasmit Patra and NCP-SP’s Supriya Sule and J&K’s Ghulam Nabi Azad are also likely to be part of the delegations. Several Opposition parties welcomed the move. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Rijiju contacted party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on the matter, adding the latter will decide which MPs are to be sent. Such diplomatic initiatives have been taken in the past as well. In 1994, the then PM Narasimha Rao deputed a team headed by Vajpayee to a UN session to present India’s case on the Kashmir problem and to defeat a Pakistan resolution to censure New Delhi. Everwin Matriculation school students jump in joy at the Class 10 results | P jawahar 93.8% TN students clear Class X, Sivaganga tops list with 98.31% pass E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai The pass percentage of Class 10 students in state board exam saw a notable jump of 2.25 percentage points, with 93.8% of the 8.71 lakh students clearing the exam this year, as per the results announced on Friday. Last year, the pass percentage was 91.55%. The increase in the pass percentage can be attributed to the performance of government schools, which saw a sharp increase of 3.36 percentage points from 87.1% in 2024 to 91.26% this year. Of the 12,485 schools, a total of 4,917 (roughly 40%) schools, including 1,867 government ones got 100% pass. Sivaganga (98.31%), Virud- 92% clear Class XI exam Of 8.07 lakh students who took the Class 11 exam, 7.43 lakh cleared the exam, registering a pass percentage of 92.09% | P2 hunagar (97.45), Thoothukudi (96.76), Kanniyakumari (96.66) and Tiruchy (96.61%) were the top five districts in pass percentage. Sivaganga also led in pass percentage among government schools (97.49%). Of the 12,290 disabled students who wrote the exam, 11,409 (92.83%) have cleared it. While girls continued to outperform boys with a pass percentage of 95.88%, compared to 91.74% for boys, the margin between them narrowed to 4.14 percentage points from 5.95 last year.  P5