Gone in minutes bengaluru l Monday l October 20, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late CITY EDITION 4 Thieves steal Napoleon-era jewels from Louvre The crown of Empress Eugenie was among the items stolen, but it was later found near the museum Robbers on Sunday broke into the iconic Paris museum and made off with the jewels in an audacious daylight robbery lasting just four minutes Around 9.30 am, several intruders broke a first-floor window, cut through the glass with a disc cutter, and headed straight to the Gallery of Apollo, officials said The thieves stole eight items from a centuries-old 23-piece Napoleon collection and fled on scooters The value of the stolen items is still being assessed. Meanwhile, a manhunt is on with the authorities looking for four suspects 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 Gaza truce strained after Israel, Hamas trade fire Agencies Just nine days after the guns fell silent in Gaza, the landmark ceasefire agreement appeared to be faltering on Sunday, with Israel carrying out fresh airstrikes in Gaza after accusing Hamas of violating the truce terms by firing at Israeli troops. Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority said at least 33 people, , including a woman and two children, were killed in Israeli strikes across the territory on Sunday Israel said it was check. ing reports of casualties. Israel’s military said Hamas militants opened fire on troops in parts of Rafah city that fall under Israeli control, according to the agreed ceasefire lines. In response, the military launched fresh airstrikes on Hamas targets in southern Gaza, it said. Israel said it responded to at least three incidents in which “Hamas fired towards our Smoke billows following an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday | afp troops standing behind the yellow line in the agreed-upon positions”. Hamas, however, insisted it was complying with the truce and accused Israel of inventing pretexts to continue the war. The group said communication with its remaining units in Rafah had been cut off for months, and “we are not responsible for any incidents occur- ring in those areas”. The escalation comes just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed security forces to take “strong action” against Hamas over alleged truce violations. Israel informed the US in advance of the strikes, Axios reported. The US urged Israel to “show restraint”.  P11 meeting on oct 22 in delhi Ladakh representatives called for talks with MHA MHA on October 17 announced a judicial inquiry led by a retired IN a significant thaw after Supreme Court judge into the months of impasse, Ladakh’s September 24 incident — one of key agitators are set to resume the key preconditions set by LAB talks with the Centre, with an and KDA to resume talks. The eight-member delegation from delegation will include three the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and representatives each from LAB Kargil Democratic Alliance and KDA, their legal advisor, and (KDA), alongside MP Haji MP Haji Haneefa. DorHaneefa Jan, scheduled jay said they would to engage a Ministry of push for the release of Home Affairs (MHA) suball detainees, includcommittee on October 22 We welcome the ing climate activist decision of the in New Delhi. Sonam Wangchuk, Government of LAB co-chair man who remains jailed unIndia to invite us Chering Dorjay told this der the National Secufor talks in Delhi paper that the MHA has and look forward rity Act, and seek cominvited them for talks p e n s at i o n fo r t h e to a positive chaired by the Union victims. outcome Home Secretary. This KDA leader Sajjad marks the first direct en- Chering Dorgay, LAB Kargili said the LAB gagement between Ladaand KDA will jointly kh representatives and the Cen- attend the meeting. “We are tre after the dialogue broke down meeting for statehood & Sixth following protests in Leh on Sep- Schedule status, justice for September 24 demanding statehood tember 24 victims, and release of and inclusion under the Sixth detainees including Sonam Schedule. The violence left four Wa n g ch u k . O n ly g e nu i n e dead and over 80 injured. dialogue can fulfil Ladakh’s Ahead of the meeting, the aspirations,” he said. f aya z w a n i @ Srinagar Centre writes to States states directed to snuff out bonded labour, trafficking J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi Need organ, tissue donation teams in all hospitals K A V ITA B A J ELI - DATT @ New Delhi THE Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) has ALL hospitals in India should have dedicated teams to directed all states and Union Territories to intensify counsel families of potential organ and tissue donors, action against inter-state human trafficking and bondthe Centre said in a communication to all states. Hosed labour, following mounting concerns over slow pitals have been asked to report all deaths, make efforts progress in rehabilitation efforts. for timely counselling of family members, and encourIn a government order issued on September 25, Secage them for organ and tissue donation. retary Vandana Gurnani instructed all Chief SecretarThe move comes as India faces a huge gap between ies to constitute vigilance committees in every district the number of patients requiring human organ and and sub-division to track bonded and child labour castissue transplants and the availability of donors. es. States have also been asked to submit proposals for “It is essential that hospitals should constitute organ immediate financial assistance to resand tissue donation teams by involvcued labourers within three months of ing brain stem death committee memissuing release certificates. bers and transplant coordinator/ The directive follows a Supreme Court counsellor,” said the National Organ Centre will Even if the order of November 22, 2024, which asked and Tissue Transplant Organization family does rehabilitate (NOTTO) in a letter to all states. NOT- not agree to 1.84 crore MoLE to consult with states to simplify TO is a national-level ogani- organ bonded procedures for identifying sation set up under the Un- donation, the labourers by and rehabilitating bonded press 2030. So far, labourers. This is the secoption for clusive ion health ministry. 35,000 ond such directive since NOTTO director Dr Anil tissue labourers December 2024, after the Kumar, in his letter, said the donation have been Centre expressed dissatisfaction with organ and tissue donation team must must be given freed the states’ progress. “However, not much be mandatorily notified of all the to the family deaths happening in hospitals. Ministry of progress seems to have been made,” the Dr Anil Kumar, “Even if the family does not agree to director, NOTTO Labour order observed. MoLE oversees the Bonded Labour organ donation, the option for tissue doSystem (Abolition) Act, 1976, and implements the “Renation must be given to the family Dr Kumar said in the ,” habilitation of Bonded Labour-2021” scheme, which proletter dated October 17. Tissues such as corneas, skin, vides compensation of `30,000 and rehabilitation grants bones, and heart valves can be donated from cases of of `1 lakh for men and `2 lakh for women. NCRB data brain-stem-death and cardiovascular deaths in hospitals for 2023 shows forced labour (23,520 cases) as the largor due to natural death cases. Tissues can be harvested up est human trafficking crime, followed by sexual exploito 10 hours after death. One donor can save eight lives. tation (17,944). Maharashtra, Telangana, and Odisha “India requires nearly one lakh corneas annually yet , reported the highest cases. only about one-third of this demand is being met. Bone Tina Kuriakose Jacob of the International Institute donation, in particular, plays a vital role in the treatfor Migration Development termed the order “a step ment of patients with trauma, nonunion of bone fractoward systematic review and monitoring to protect tures, congenital abnormalities, and other bone-relatthe poorest and most vulnerable workers.” ed disorders,” the letter said. City pubs lose fizz, blame duty hike, poor infra B a l a C h a u h a n @bengaluru The pub city is seemingly losing its spirit with “loss in business” by almost 25% in the last quarter. Sources in the food & beverage (F&B) industry told TNIE that the overall footfalls in their outlets have gradually reduced over the last few months. “There are several reasons for loss of business. Steep increase in Additional Excise Duty (AED) on Indian Made Liquor, fluctuation in beer prices within this year, long weekends, job insecurity and layoffs, heavy rain, bad road condition, traffic and lack of adequate parking space in the city have had a cumulative effect on people dining out,” said some of the owners of pubs and restobars. “We see many of our regular diners holding back. Corporate companies are cutting cost and people are becoming cautious spenders,” said the owners. One of the most perceptive shifts is the loss of footfalls in pubs and bars in IT hubs in the city they , added. “We manage to do 80% of our business in the CBD, but in the IT corridors, there has been a perceptible reduction by at least 20% and it’s huge,” said owners of some leading pubs and bars. They added that growing job insecurity and layoffs, especially in the IT sector, which is the main source of revenue for the F&B industry high rentals, cost of man, power and living are the reasons why people who earlier dined out every weekend have now cut down on their spending.  P5 The market is saturated. Sustaining them while maintaining quality and service is a challenge. Some businesses are suffering because of this as well Owners of pubs and bars express read Survey deadline in city now Oct 31 Bengaluru: With the SocioEconomic and Educational Survey making less than 40% progress in Bengaluru, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah extended the deadline from October 24 to 31. A short break from October 21 to 23 too has been declared for Deepavali | P2