KOLLAM l thursday l april 18, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Sakshi among top 100 on Time’s annual influential persons list Rio Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik figured in the list for leading a protest against alleged sexual harassment by a top wrestling federation official Sakshi Malik while announcing her retirement in December Took on former WFI chief for Harassment Alia Bhatt, Dev Patel too feature Sakshi, along with Tokyo Olympics bronze winner Bajrang Punia and multiple World Championships medallist Vinesh Phogat, spearheaded the protest against beleaguered former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at Jantar Mantar. They were demanding his arrest for intimidating and allegedly sexually harassing female grapplers ■ ■ Other Indians on the 2024 list include actress Alia Bhatt, Indo-British actor Dev Patel and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella “This fight is no longer only for India’s female wrestlers,” said Sakshi. She quit the day Sanjay Singh, considered Brij Bhushan’s close aide, was elected president of the Wrestling Federation of India | P11 1 The protest went on for almost a year 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 Security forces have 17 Naxals in cross-hairs They will be neutralised or made to surrender. Maoist commander Mandvi Hidma in list MUK E S H RAN J AN @ New Delhi HIT LIST NAME: ACTIVE IN 1 | Muppala Lakmana Rao: Maad area, Chhattisgarh 2 | Nambla Keshav Rao: Maad area, Chhattisgarh 3 | Mallaraji Reddy: Tri-junction bordering Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh & Odisha 4 | Mallajula Venugopal: Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra forests 5 | Misir Besra: Jharkhand 6 | Chandri Yadav: Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh forests 7 | Theepani Thirupati: Chhattisgarh 8 | Akki Raj (Hargopal): Andhra-Odisha border 9 | Kadarat Satyanarayan Reddy: Chhattisgarh border area 10 | Paluri Prasad Rao: Chhattisgarh & Telangana 11 | Modem Balakrishna: Odisha 12 | Ramanna: Chhattisgarh 13 | Sudhakar: Jharkhand 14 | Parvez: Location yet to be ascertained 15 | Asim Mandal: Jharkhand & West Bengal 16 | Hari Bhushan: Chhattisgarh 17 | Mandvi Hidma: Chhattisgarh A day after eliminating 29 Maoists in the Kanker area of the Bastar division of Chhattisg arh, security forces on Wednesday said they have identified 17 dangerous Naxal operatives for neutralisation. The hit list, prepared under Operation Prahar, includes the dreaded Maoist commander Mandvi Hidma, also known as Hidmalu alias Santosh. Born in Purvarti village of South Sukma, Hidma has been associated with Naxalism since 2001 and is considered the most dangerous, officials said. He runs a strong information network in the entire area and is an expert in using AK-47, sources said. The forces have tracked his location to the Sukma forests in Chhattisgarh where he is hiding. Officials said as many as 79 Naxalites have been killed so far this year in separate encounters in the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh, a Maoist stronghold. Of them, 42 Naxal operatives were neutralised in the past 15 days through two major operations. The main objective of Operation Prahar is to hit top Naxal commanders, who brainwash innocent youth and instigate them to join their ranks. Sources said the Naxals “are now feeling the heat and are on the defensive”, adding that the operation will be intensified in the coming days. Mosques tweak April 26 prayer timings to help believers vote S h a n A S @T’Puram Perturbed that many believers may choose to stay away from exercising their franchise in the Lok Sabha elections on April 26 since it is a Friday, Muslim jamaath committees are rescheduling the obligatory Jumu’ah prayer and cutting short its duration. The Friday prayer, comprising sermons in Malayalam and Arabic, and then namaz, is one of the exalted religious practices of Muslims, and normally spans 45 minutes to an hour. The move by several committes aims to help believers, who might be torn between performing religious duties or fulfilling democratic responsibilities. The prominent Palayam jamaath Oz woman tears down pro-Palestine posters E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @Kochi A Jewish-origin woman tourist from Australia has been booked after she tore down proPalestine banners and boards erected at Fort Kochi earlier this week. Zara Shilensky Michele, 38, who was with another Australian woman tourist at the time of the incident on Monday night, was arraigned on Wednesday after she was found to have torn down the posters and boards put up by Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, at Jankar Jetty in Kamalakadavu. A police official said Michele has been booked under Section 153 of the IPC (provoking riots), a bailable offence. The women are here on vacation. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) too has collected the details about the two tourists from the homestay in Fort Kochi where they are currently staying. The Australian Embassy in India is in touch with the police and FRRO Mattancherry ACP Manoj K R said they have not detained the tourists, and they are currently in the homestay ● More on P6 . EXPRESS READ EC flags down Bengal guv’s trip New Delhi: The ECI has asked West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose to cancel his proposed visit to Cooch Behar district, saying it would violate the Model Code of Conduct. Cooch Behar is among the three WB constituencies voting in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday. Domestic tourists not warming up to Kerala S h a i n u M o h a n @ T’Puram The extreme heat situation since February in the state has come as a heavy blow to the tourism industry . According to stakeholders, compared to previous years, there is a significant dip in bookings since mid-March, suggesting a drop in domestic tourists visiting the state. As per industry insiders, there has been a 3040% drop in the arrival of domestic tourists at all major tourist destinations in Kerala, including Munnar. In 2023, around 2.18 crore domestic tourists visited Kerala, whcih was 15.92% higher compared to 2022. “There is a significant decline in domestic tourist arrivals in the state in April-May period. Due to extreme heat, even people from driveable locations within the state are not very keen to spend their vacation at getaways,” says Manzoor A R, corporate sales manager of Abad Group of Hotels and Resorts. “We have 14 properties at seven destinations and there is a considerable drop in occupancy from previous years. Occupancy was almost full in the last two years. Now, there is a 30-40% drop in bookings in general,” Manzoor ● More on P6 said. committee in Thiruvananthapuram said the April 26 Jumu’ah will be held from 1pm to 1.20pm instead of 12.45pm to 1.30pm. “The Jumu’ah prayer, usually lasting 45 minutes, will be cut short by 25 minutes on poll day We took the decision . after consultations and announced it during Eid prayer. Several nearby jamaath com- mittees are also opting to reschedule Jumu’ah to help believers vote without relinquishing the prayer,” said Palayam committee president Haji Sheikh Zabeeb. Haji A Saifudeen, secretary of the influential Kerala Muslim Jamaath that is aligned with the Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliar-led Sunni faction, said the committees are fixing prayer timings to make it easier for the community members to vote. “If a mosque has set 12.45pm as its prayer time, the prayer in the nearby mosque will commence a few minutes later. Nearby mosques will adjust timings accordingly so that voters and those involved in election duty, such as police officers, can attend the prayer as per their convenience,” Saifudeen ● More on P6 said. DMK locked in gruelling fight in Nilgiris N D h a m o t h a r a n @ Nilgiris It’s that time of the year when the weather here is balmy drawing tour, ists in droves. However, the political temperature has soared in the old mountain ranges as it witnesses an ideological battle between the BJP’s L Murugan, a minister of state in Modi’s ministry, and the DMK’s A Raja, former telecom minister in the UPA-2 ministry, in this reserved constituency . Raja and Murugan are locked in a fierce three-cornered battle with Lokesh Tamilselvan of the AIADMK, son of P Dhanapal who was speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for nearly 10 years up to May 2021. A native of Namakkal, Murugan was actively involved in the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) in his college days and later joined the RSS. Between 2017 and 2020, he served as Vice Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC). D u r i n g this period, he closely worked with people belonging to the SC community. In March 2020, he became the state president of the BJP, the second person from a Dalit community to hold the post after S P Kirubanidhi. In the 2021 TN Assem- bly election when the BJP was in an alliance with the AIADMK, Murugan contested from the Dharapuram reserved constituency and lost to DMK’s N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, who went on to become state minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare, by a slim margin of 1,393 votes. Within a month, he was rewarded for his party work and inducted into the Union cabinet. Like Coimbatore, the BJP has won the Nilgiris seat twice in 1998 and 1999, after the infamous 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blast incident. In 1998, contesting as part of an alliance with the AIADMK, BJP candidate M Master Mathan defeated Tamil Maanila Congress candidate S R Balasubramanian. A year later, this time contesting as part of the DMK alliance, he defeated Congress’s R Prabhu.
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