vijayawada l wednesday l march 27, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION FIVE chinese nationals killed in Suicide attack in NorthWest paK A vehicle loaded with explosives rammed into a bus carrying the Chinese nationals in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Its driver too died No outfit claims responsibility for attack Militants target Naval base in Baloch The vehicle carrying the Chinese engineers fell into a gorge after the bast and caught fire. Rescue workers reached the spot and put out the fire. The bodies of the Chinese nationals — four men and a woman — were being taken to Islamabad. The foreigners were working on the Dasu hydropower project. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack till now | P11 ■ ■ Pakistan security forces on Monday night foiled an attack at a naval air base in Turbat district of Balochistan, killing at least four militants. In the exchange of fire, one security personnel was killed Militants attacked one of the biggest naval air bases from three sides, but their attempts were foiled by Pakistan’s security forces dozen blasts were heard in Turbat town during the attack on Naval base 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 At least 6 missing after ship smashes key u.s. bridge 1 2 3 4 A large ship hit the Francis Scott Key bridge in the port of Baltimore at 1:27 am on Tuesday, causing it to collapse, sending cars and people plunging into the Patapsco River Talks with SAD fail, BJP to go it alone in Punjab Demand for assurance on farmers and Sikh political prisoners were the sticking points H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Efforts to stitch up an alliance between the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections broke down on Tuesday with the saffron party announcing its decision to go it alone. There was a similar collapse of talks in Odisha between the BJP and the ruling BJD a few days ago. The breakdown in Punjab was not about the seat-sharing ratio. The BJP wanted six of the 13 Lok Sabha seats while the SAD was willing to part with five. But an agreement was around the corner. The sticking points instead were the SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal’s insistence that the BJP offer some assurance to the protesting farmers so as to help his Akali party sell the alliance to its rural voter base. The SAD had snapped its alliance with the BJP in September 2020 after three farm laws were rammed through in Parliament, which triggered a massive nationwide agitation. The other demand was for some commitment on the release of Sikh political prisoners (Bandi Singhs). But the BJP refused to yield on both the hot button issues. Announcing his party’s decision, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar said, “The decision has been taken in the interest of a safe and secure border state. I am sure people will support the BJP in the June 1 election.’’ Badal hit back, saying the “Shiromani Akali Dal is not just a political party driven by number games, unlike some national parties. We are a 103-yearold movement with a clear vision and we have always stood by and for principles. That will continue to be our goal.” When the alliance talks were on, both Jakhar and former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh who is a national executive committee member of the BJP, had said building a SAD-BJP bond was the emotion of the people of Punjab. This will be the first LS polls since 1998 that both the BJP and SAD will contest separately. In the previous LS poll coalitions with the SAD, the BJP had contested from three constituencies. As for the 2022 assembly polls, they went it alone and got humiliating single digit scores of two (BJP) and three (SAD) in the 117-member House. BJP fields Turncoats in Himachal, Guj bypoll The BJP on Tuesday named six disqualified Congress MLAs as its candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly bypolls, triggering a rebellion by party leaders who expected the tickets. Former Himachal Pradesh minister and BJP leader from Lahaul and Spiti assembly constituency, Ram Lal Markanda, quit the party to protest the fielding of Congress rebel Ravi Thakur who had defeated him in the constituency in the last assembly elections. In Gujarat, four Congress turncoat MLAs, including former leader of opposition Arjun Modhwadia, were fielded by the BJP in the assembly bypolls Express read Free thinking in legal career need of hour: CJI Tirupati: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud emphasised the importance of valid evaluation and free thinking in the legal profession and the role of education as a tool for serving society and fulfilling a social responsibility | P3 Shah says J&K peaceful, polls to be held in Sept New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday indicated that elections in Jammu and Kashmir would be held by September. The Union Minister asserted that bringing democracy to J&K was the avowed aim of the Modi government | P9 MEMANTA SIDDHAM, SAYS JAGAN YSRC chief set to launch bus yatra from Idupulapaya on Wednesday Route map: Kumarunipalli, Vempalli, Sarvarajupeta, VN Palli (Kamalapuram), Gangireddypalli, Urutur, Yerraguntla (Jammalamadugu), and Potladurthi Public meeting: Proddutur bypass road 8 workers fixing potholes on the 2.57-km long bridge and several cars fell into the frigid river below, at 8˚C. Two were pulled out; one seriously hurt. Search on for the rest The 948-ft ‘Dali’ container ship’s crew issued a ‘Mayday’ call before the accident, helping officials to slow traffic flow and prevent more vehicles from falling into the cold river All 22 Indian crew members of the Maersk-operated ship are safe. The ship’s owner is Singaporebased Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, founded by Capt Rajesh Unni | P11 Govt mum as US does a Germany, says it encourages fair legal process on Kejriwal y e s h i s e l i @ New Delhi The US on Tuesday became the second country after Germany to ‘encourage a fair legal process’ following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21. While the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had described the German foreign office spokesperson Sebastian Fischer as an interference in India’s internal affairs, it is yet react to the US comment. “We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” said a US State Department spokesperson on Monday to an email query by Reuters. The US embassy in Delhi, too, has not reacted to the remark. A few days ago, a German foreign ministry official said Ke- khaki corruption Phone tapping case goes to Telangana ACB S w e t h a v i m a l a M @ Hyderabad amid the political slugfest over Telangana’s phone tapping case, the state’s Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) is looking into the corruption charges against the accused officials, sources said. The ACB’s move comes after revelations that apart from tapping phones, the officers extorted hundreds of crores from jewellers, realtors and hawala operators during the previous BRS rule. The accused allegedly used the extorted money to purchase villas and other real estate properties on the outskirts of Hyderabad. So far, three police officials have been arrested in the case. A local court on Tuesday adjourned the case to Wednesday on the petition filed by the police seeking five-day custody of the trio — former Special Intelligence Bureau DSP D Praneeth Rao and ASPs Bhujanga Rao and Thirupathanna . The accused allegedly tapped the phone conversations of the businessmen and used the audio clips to demanded money from them. The ruling Congress and the BJP accused the former K Chandrasekhar Rao government of tapping phones of not only Opposition parties but also the then finance minister T Harish Rao’s wife and MLC K Kavitha’s husband. Alleging that the ‘unconstitutional act’ was not confined to leaders and businessmen of Hyderabad, Congress leader from Mahabubnagar Srinivas Reddy requested the DGP to set up complaint cells at all district headquarters to receive complaints on phone tapping. political arena HOTS UP IN AP Naidu steps up campaign in Kuppam TDP supremo undertakes door-to-door campaign in his home constituency on Tuesday Ex-CM contesting from Kuppam for 8th time This is the first time he has taken up such an intense drive in Kuppam in past 3 decades PAWAN kalyan DONATES `10 CR TO HIS JANA SENA PARTY The actor-politician handed over the `10-crore cheque to JSP treasurer AV Ratnam in the presence of party general secretary K Nagendra Babu. He said, “Leaders like Motilal Nehru donated their earnings for nation building during the freedom struggle. I, too, am making the donation to revitalise Andhra Pradesh.” jriwal is entitled to a fair and an impartial trial and can make use of all the existing legal remedies without restriction. The response of MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was caustic. “We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary he said. ,” Biased assumptions made on this account are most unwarranted, Jaiswal added. Denied tickets, top BJP leaders in State give key party meeting a miss P H a r e e s h @ Vijayawada After the denial of tickets to contest in the upcoming general elections, at least three BJP State leaders have skipped the party’s office bearers’ meeting held in Vijayawada on Tuesday . Of them, two were denied tickets while the other leader is likely to get the Assembly ticket in place of Lok Sabha which he had sought, leading to heartburn, sources said. One of the leaders reportedly went incommunicado. The party leaders could not reach him over phone while another leader was in Vijayawada itself but did not attend the meeting citing health grounds. The meeting was reportedly held to finalise candidates for the Assembly segments that the party is contesting. AP election in-charge and party national general secretary Arun Singh, AP election co-incharge Siddharth Nath Singh and party State president D Purandeswari attended the meeting. Apart from the denial of tick- Only Narasapuram MP pick BJP loyalist Of the six candidates announced by the party, Narasapuram MP contestant Bhupathiraju Srinivas Varma is the lone one who was a BJP man while the remaining are turncoats ets, what is making them unhappy is that the party leadership rolled out a red-carpet to turncoats like CM Ramesh, N Kiran Kumar Reddy and others , who have joined the party recently Those who did . not attend the meeting were former State BJP unit president Somu Veerraju, State vicepresident S Vishnuvardhan Reddy, and GVL Narasimha Rao. Sources said Veerraju wanted to contest the Rajamahendravaram MP seat but the party chose Purandeswari. Though Veerraju was assured of the Rajamahendravaram Rural Assembly seat, he was P4 not happy .
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