BHUBANESWAR l wednesday l november 19, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late CITY EDITION Baba Siddique murder: Gangster Anmol Bishnoi being deported baba siddique mutiple cases lodged across country Bishnoi, also a wanted accused in the case related to a firing on Bollywood star Salman Khan’s residence, is expected to land in Delhi on Wednesday. Mumbai Police had sent two requests to the US for his extradition. There are multiple cases registered against the gangster across the country. The Centre will decide which agency gets his custody first | P8 Gangster Anmol Bishnoi, a key accused in the gunning down of NCP leader Baba Siddique, is being deported to India from the US, police said ■ 2024 U.S. tells baba’s son of anmol’s expulsion ■ NCP leader and Baba Siddique’s son Zeeshan Siddique told a news agency on Tuesday that he had received an email informing that Anmol Bishnoi had been “removed” from the United States Baba Siddique, a former Maharashtra minister, was shot dead on October 12, 2024, in front of his son Zeeshan’s office in Bandra in april last year, anmol’s gang fired on salman khan’s residence 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 strained ties India-B’desh women series postponed G o m e sh S @ Chennai Amidst diplomatic strain between the two countries, the women’s cricket series between India and Bangladesh slated for December has been postponed. Interestingly this comes a day af, ter for mer Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was handed a death sentence by a tribunal court in the country for alleged crimes against humanity. Earlier in August 2025, India had also postponed men’s bilateral series to September 2026. The women’s series would have been the first assignment after winning the World Cup for Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. As per the ICC Future Tours Programme, Bangladesh women were supposed to tour India for a white-ball series against India in December. “As far as the Bangladesh series is concerned, it is postponed,” a BCCI source told this daily. No official reason was given but it is understood that the tense diplomatic relations between the two nations could have led to the decision. The interim government in Dhaka has been demanding the extradition of Hasina who has been in India since fleeing the country last year. On the other hand, Bangladesh teams have visited India for multi-nation sporting events including the Men’s Hockey Asia Cup in August and women’s Cricket World Cup in October this year. COP30 enters 2nd week with nothing but words The UN climate summit in Brazil is in its second and final week. Negotiators have till November 21 to untangle the knots they have not been able to resolve in the 29 meetings since Berlin 1995 | P7 BJP may retain Speaker; JD(U) Home Nitish to resign today RA J E S H K UMAR T H A K UR a n d R a m a sh a n k a r @ New Delhi/Patna Amid hard bargaining among NDA allies over plum portfolios in the new Bihar ministry on Tuesday the Speaker’s post is ex, pected to stay with the BJP while , Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may retain Home despite the BJP pressing him to part with it. Sources said on the names of two prominent BJP leaders for the position of Speaker have already been considered, one of whom will be finalised at Wednesday’s BJP legislature party meeting in Patna. While earlier it was speculated Nitish will resign as head of the outgoing govt on Wednesday to start the formal process of forming a new government, which will take its oath of office the following day that Chirag Paswan’s party might get a deputy CM’s post, it now appears that the BJP would pocket both deputy CM posts, with the party considering appointing new faces for that position. Initially, the JD(U) wanted the Speaker’s post. It however, yielded and then pitched for a deputy CM’s post. 43 Maoists arrested in joint operation across AP Madvi Hidma Soon after the encounter in which Madvi Hidma was killed, security forces on Tuesday arrested 43 Maoists in a joint operation at Vijayawada, Eluru, and Kakinada Dreaded Maoist Hidma killed in encounter in AP Five others, including his wife, gunned down by security forces near C’garh-Andhra border E J A Z K AI S ER & D H ARMENDRA RE G ANA @ Raipur / Visakhapatnam Dreaded Maoist commander Madvi Hidma, the mastermind behind some of the deadliest Naxal strikes including the 2010 Tadmetla attack which killed 76 security personnel, was killed in an encounter near the Chhattisg arh-Andhra Pradesh border on Tuesday . Security forces gunned down Hidma (51), his wife Madkam Raje, and four other Naxalites in Maredumilli forest in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR) district. The other slain Maoists were identified as Deve, Lakmal alias Chaitu, Malla alias Mallalu, and Kamlu alias Kamlesh, officials said. Speaking to media persons, Andhra Pradesh Intelligence Chief Mahesh Chandra Laddha said ASR district police launched a combing operation at Papikonda National Park at 6.30 am on Tuesday, which led to the encounter. A native of Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, Hidma was also known as Hidmanna, Hidmalu, and Deva. He joined the CPI (Maoist) in 1991 as a Bal Sangham member, and rose through the ranks to become commander of Peoples’ Liberation Guerrilla Army Battalion No 1, secretary of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, and Central Committee Member in 2023. Hidma, who had a cumulative bounty of over `1 crore across states, orchestrated numerous attacks in the past two decades. According to Chhattisgarh intelligence officials, every major Maoist attack in the state had his imprint. Despite repeated appeals by the government to surrender, Hidma remained committed to the violent ideology. Last week, his mother Punji Madvi also asked him to lay down arms, but it did not yield any results. Hidma and his close aides were on the run after security forces stepped up pressure in Naxal strong holds, forcing them to leave their traditional hideouts, sources said. “The end of Hidma’s chapter is a breakthrough to wipe out the Maoist outfit. The few Naxal cadres now have no option except to shun violence and join the social mainstream,” said Sundarraj Pattlingam, Bastar Range IGP . Prem Kumar, an eight-time BJP MLA from Gaya Town, is the frontrunner for the post of Speaker. Potential candidates for the deputy CM include Mangal Pandey, who has the backing of the RSS and served as health minister in the outgoing government, and Sanjiv Chaurasia or Vijay Kumar Sinha. After a three-hour meeting JD(U) leaders had with home minister Amit Shah, a formula for ministerial berths was agreed in principle. Apart from the CM, the ministry will have 16 from the BJP, 14 from JD(U), three from Chirag’s LJP(RV) and one each from Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha. Nitish visited Gandhi Maidan to inspect preparations of the oath-taking ceremony on November 20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and others are expected to attend. umar Video glorifying suicide attack unearthed car blast: ed arrests al falah chairman suicide bomber, Dr Umar Nabi, and the extracted data provided THE Enforcement Directorate chilling evidence that he had (ED) on Tuesday arrested Jawad prepared a video justifying the Ahmed Siddiqui, chairsuicide attack as ‘marman and founder of the tyrdom operation’. Al Falah group, as part The video’s authenof an ongoing money ticity could not be indelaundering probe linked pendently verified by to the car blast near Delthis paper. The critical hi’s Red Fort. evidence was unearthed Siddiqui’s arrest folafter the detention and lows ED raids conducted Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui subsequent interrogaat over 25 locations assotion of Zahoor Illahi, ciated with the Al Falah group brother of Umar. and its Faridabad-based Al Falah Illahi cracked under sustained University which is at the centre questioning and told his interro, of the probe into a suspected gators that Umar, who was in the “white-collar” terror module im- Kashmir Valley between October plicated in the November 10 Del- 26-29, had handed him the phone hi blast that killed 13 people. with explicit instructions to The agency also seized `48 “dump it in water” if any news lakh in cash during the searches about him surfaced, officials that began around 5.15 am. said. The phone was handed over Jammu and Kashmir Police to the National Investigation recovered a mobile phone of the Agency . e x p r e ss n e w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi express read CM asks collectors to focus on clean, honest governance Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday issued a stern directive to the district collectors to crackdown on corruption and focus on good governance for restoring people’s confidence on administration. Majhi asked them to work on a mission mode to achieve the target of constructing roads, providing electricity and drinking water to all villages | P3 Terror links in Bangladeshi infiltrators case to be probed Jagatsinghpur : Jagatsinghpur police has launched an investigation to ascertain any possible terror link of the accused who harboured nearly 30 illegal Bangladeshi nationals in houses built on government land for the last four years. On Monday, the district administration razed around 17 illegal structures including 10 houses in Behrampur slum | P4 Rameshwar-Paradip coastal highway gets centre’s nod H e m a n t K u m a r R o u t @ Bhubaneswar In a significant development, the public private partnership appraisal committee (PPPAC) of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has approved a major portion of the ambitious Odisha coastal highway from Rameshwar to Digha to be built at an estimated cost of `8,300.79 crore. The 160.18 km section from Rameshwar to Paradip of the 346km greenfield highway will be constructed on hybrid annuity model (HAM) in two packages four-lane access control carriageway from Rameshwar to Kakatpur and two-lane with paved shoulders from Kakatpur to Paradip. In May, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had to cancel the tenders floated for the Rameshwar to Paradip stretch due Project estimates Total cost: `8,300 cr  Rameshwar-Kakatpur package-I: `5,304 cr  Kakatpur-Paradip package-II: `2,996 cr  Road length: 160 km  Major bridges: 36  Minor bridges: 89  Flyovers: 3  Underpass: 45 to last minute changes in alignment over traffic volume. Initially planned as a fourlane highway the 80.78 km Kakat, pur-Paradip stretch was reduced to two-lane with paved shoulders. Of an estimated 794.69 ha of land required for both the packages in Khurda, Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts, land acquisition has advanced for around 70 per cent of land in package-I and 30 per cent in package-II. This portion of the highw ay h a d a l ready received environmental and CRZ clearance, while online ap p l i c at i o n h a s been filed for stage-I forest clearance. Sources said, 36 major bridges (including a 3.3 km major bridge over Mahanadi river), 89 minor bridges, 376 culverts and three flyovers will be constructed as part of the project, apart from six viaducts, three rail overbridges (ROBs) and 45 vehicle underpasses. The general arrangement drawings for all three ROBs have also been approved. The 79.4 km Rameshwar-Kakatpur (Konark) stretch will primarily cater to tourism-related traffic, while the Kakatpur-Paradip section has been aligned to serve the upcoming ports and logistics hubs. Although the traffic survey conducted for the current proposal does not include projections from upcoming ports, once the Astaranga port becomes operational, the two-lane stretch in package-II will be upgraded to four-lane. “Initially the two-lane road will , be constructed on one side. After the port development, the opposite side will be developed to complete a four-lane access-controlled corridor to cater to the long-term traffic demand,” sourcContinued on P5 es said.  ed raids continue Terror suspect Dr Saiyed beaten up in Sabarmati jail D i l i p S i n gh K sh at r i ya @ Ahmedabad Two-minute long video In the twominute long video shot in April, Umar said, “...Suicide bombing ...is a martyrdom operation. There are multiple arguments and contradictions that have been brought against it.” Dr Ahmed Mohyuddin Saiyed, one of the three terror suspects recently arrested in an alleged ISIS plot, was on Tuesday assaulted in Sabarmati Central Jail during an early-morning brawl with three undertrial inmates. Dr Saiyed suffered severe eye and facial injuries. He filed an FIR, prompting a high-level internal probe and fresh scrutiny over the security of high-risk prisoners. After a verbal spat around 7 am, the doctor was beaten to pulp until he collapsed with injuries to his eye, face and other body parts. Prison staff took him to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital for treatment. The assailants were lodged in the same barrack. They used a kind of belt to beat up Dr Saiyed. Gaurav Agrawal, SP of Sabarmati Central Jail, said: “The reason for the attack is unclear.”