kochi l tuesday l august 12, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION MEA slams munir, says India will not give in to nuclear blackmail Rude remarks from ‘friendly 3rd country’ Munir, currently on a visit to the US, made the threat while addressing the Pakistani diaspora in Florida’s Tampa. “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” Asim Munir said. In an apparent message to the US, the MEA said it is regrettable that these remarks were made from the soil of a friendly third country Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s “stock-intrade”, the MEA said on Monday, in a strong response to the Pak Army Chief’s nuclear threat iNDIA TO TAKE UP THE matter with THE u.S. ■ ■ Munir’s remarks reinforce the well-held doubts that the Pak military is “hand-in-glove” with terrorist groups, the MEA said in its statement Later in the evening, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told the Shashi Tharoor-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that the government will take up the matter with the US 2nd This is Munir’s second visit to the U.S. in a span of one-and-a-half months 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 Woman’s suicide: Boyfriend held for rape; BJP alleges ‘love jihad’ E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @Kochi TMC MPs Sushmita Dev (left) and Mahua Moitra (second from left) scale a police barricade during a march by INDIA bloc MPs from Parliament to the ECI’s office in Delhi on Monday; Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attends to TMC’s Mitali Bag after she fainted at the protest venue | PTI High drama as Bihar SIR stir spills onto Delhi’s streets Opposition MPs barred from reaching the ECI office, briefly detained by police P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader This fight is not political; it is aimed at saving Constitution... We want a clean, pure voter list Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress president BJP’s cowardly dictatorship will not work! This is a fight to protect people’s right to vote, a struggle to save democracy Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief It’s not the first time fingers have been raised at the EC. In UP polls, the SP raised issues multiple times In a day of high drama, the Opposition’s protest against the voter roll revision in Bihar spilled onto the streets with the Delhi Police detaining several top leaders of INDIA bloc, including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, during their march to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) headquarters in the capital. While the march led by Rahul began from Parliament House at noon, the MPs were stopped midway as the police had placed multiple barricades on Parliament Street to block them from moving forward. While the police asked the MPs not to proceed further and made an announcement through a loudspeaker that they should send only 30 representatives forward, many MPs sat on the road and raised slogans against the alleged ‘vote theft’ and poll rigging. In the melee, some MPs including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, Sagarika Ghose and the Congress’ Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani, scaled the barricades raising slogans. The protesting MPs were later whisked away by police in buses to the Parliament Street police station. TMC’s Moitra and Mitali Bag fainted while being de- You can’t adversely impact PM Modi’s leadership, people’s mandate, constitutional system via fear 18 pages, including 4 pages of kochi Express 8 bills get nod sans debate Parliament passed 8 bills without discussion, including the National Sports Governance Bill, the National Anti-Doping (Amend) Bill and the I-T (No 2) Bill and Taxation Laws (Amend) Bill | P9 poll row: BJD set to go to HC Eight months after complaint to the ECI about irregularities in 2024 Assembly and LS polls in Odisha, the BJD will escalate the matter to the Orissa High Court | P9 K’taka min sacked for embarrassing Cong B a n sy K a l a ppa @ Bengaluru Dharmendra Pradhan , Union minister tained. All of them were released after a brief detention. Later speaking to the media, Rahul said the Opposition is protesting for the right to vote for every Indian and demanding a “clean and pure” voter list, asserting that the issue of alleged irregularities pointed out by him will ‘explode’ soon as it is not related to a single constituency but the whole country . Indicating that he would not submit a signed affidavit as sought by the Election Commission, Rahul asserted that the data analysed by the Congress to provide proof of ‘vote theft’ was taken from the EC’s website. “They cannot talk as the truth is before the entire nation. This fight is not political; it is aimed at saving the Constitution,” said Rahul. Meanwhile, a war of words broke out between the EC and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who said that he had written to the EC requesting a meeting to collectively hand over a memorandum. The ECI said Jairam had acknowledged its invitation for a meeting with 30 MPs but later “changed his tone”. The EC rebutted Jairam’s claim that he has urged the panel to allow Opposition MPs to collectively hand over a memorandum and not for just a delegation. On the surface, it seemed like a routine resignation. But behind the calm façade of Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna’s sudden exit from the Karnataka cabinet lies a web of controversy, high-stakes power struggles and whispers of betrayal that have set the state’s political corridors abuzz. The 74-year-old minister, a close confidant of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, part of the latter’s core support group and a key face of the ing the Congress rule. This ST community, suddenly re- gave an impression that Consigned on the first day of the gress too did not do anything legislature session. on the very issue the The timing couldn’t party is fighting against. h av e b e e n m o r e For the Congress brass, telling. it was appalling. For The tipping point Siddaramaiah, it was was a seemingly offan embarrassment. hand comment. A few Even before Rajanna days ago, he had said sent in his resignation, that the controversial the Chief Minister’s OfK N Rajanna voter list in the Mafice forwarded its rechadevapura assembly ommendation for his constituency which is central ouster to Raj Bhavan. The , to the Congress’ “vote theft” of- message was clear: it was a fensive, had been prepared dur- purge. NATPAC study 400 sections in state risky for pedestrians S h a i n u M o h a n @T’Puram Pedestrian deaths accounted for 26.5% — over one-fourth — of the total fatalities in road accidents in Kerala between 2018 and 2022. As per a study by the NATPAC (National Transportation Planning and Research Centre) based on the data, the state has 400 pedestrian vulnerable corridors — sections of roads where risks to pedestrians are exceptionally high — spanning a total 555.81 km. The study said more than 5,100 pedestrians died in road crashes in Kerala between 2018 and 2022 in these corridors. The NATPAC analysis also found that 62% of the 400 corridors lacked basic pedestrian facilities like footpaths and zebra crossings, further elevating risks. As per the Road Crash Statistics of the State Crime Records Bureau, Kerala Police — which was referred for the NATPAC study — as many as 19,468 people died and 2,11,534 were injured in 1,86,375 road accidents in Kerala from 2018 to 2022. Kerala ranked third in India when it came to total road accidents. Experts behind the study have urged policymakers to shift from isolated “black spot” remedies to more comprehensive, corridor-based interventions. These targeted measures, they argue, will help allocate resources effectively and address root causes of pedestrian vulnerability—urban design flaws, inadequate infrastructure and enforcement gaps. V S Sanjay Kumar, scientist in charge of traffic engineering and safety division of NATPAC, who is spearheading the study, said the report will be completed and submitted to the government by March 2026. “Pedestrian safety must be tackled beyond isolated black ● More on P6 spots,” he said.  Unsafe 247 of 400 corridors have no facilities like zebra crossing, footpath or foot overbridge 262 corridors of 400 in rural areas 138 in urban areas 163 are part of NHs 100 are part of state highways 5,100 pedestrian deaths reported in the 400 corridors between 2018 and 2022 Police on Monday arrested the boyfriend of the 23-year-old woman who died by suicide in Kothamangalam, on charges of rape under the pretext of marriage, abetment of suicide and assault. The case has sparked a political controversy with , BJP leaders alleging that the woman was the victim of a ‘love jihad’-linked religious conversion attempt. The deceased, Sona Eldhose, a resident of Puthupady in Kothamangalam and a TTC student at an institute in Muvattupuzha, was found dead at her residence around 2 pm on Saturday. She was alone at the time. Ramees, 24, a native of Alangad in Sona Eldhose Ramees Aluva and a temporary employee at the Cochin International Airport in Nedumbassery was first taken into , preventive custody, and was later formally arrested under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for abetment of suicide, rape under the pretext of marriage, wrongful confinement, and voluntarily causing hurt. Police said his father and mother have also been booked and will be taken into custody for questioning. The Ernakulam rural police said a suicide note recovered from Sona’s house says she was pressured by Ramees and his father to convert to their faith, and that she was assaulted over it. “We have obtained evidence from their WhatsApp chats indicating that Ramees assaulted Sona. The messages also reveal that when Sona expressed her intention to end her life, Ramees encouraged her to do so,” an officer said. The note, described by the investigators as a turning point in the case, begins: “I don’t want to live a life where I have to endure such betray● More on P6 al.” Move all stray dogs in Delhi to shelters: SC S UCHITRA K A LYAN M OHANT Y @ New Delhi the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Delhi government and the civic authorities of Delhi-NCR to round up all stray dogs at the earliest and put them in dog shelters to be set up by the civic authorities of Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad within eight weeks. The ruling by a bench of justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan came on a suo motu case initiated by it over the spike in incidents of dog bites leading to rabies. The bench also directed that the dog shelters should have sufficient personnel to sterilise and immunise the dogs, aside from looking after them. The centres would be under CCTV surveillance to ensure the dog remains in the facility , the court added. The bench held that the situation is so grim there is no room for sentiments. It warned of strict action against individuals and organisations in case of obstruction, which might also prompt the court to initiate contempt proceedings. The court said while the order is clear about what should be done, it is for the civic bodies to decide how to implement it. “For this, if they have to create a force they shall do it at the earliest,” the bench said.