KANNUR 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 Sakshi Malik while announcing her retirement in December Took on former WFI chief for Harassment 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 Rio Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik figured in the list for leading a protest against alleged sexual harassment by a top wrestling federation official Alia Bhatt, Dev Patel too feature ■ ■ 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 Mosques step in, tweak April 26 prayer timings S h a n A S @T’Puram They will be neutralised or made to surrender. Maoist commander Mandvi Hidma in list M U K E S H R AN 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 EXPRESS READ ED questions CMRL MD Kartha at home Kochi: The ED probing the CMRL pay-off case interrogated the firm’s MD S N Sasidharan Kartha at his house in Aluva on Wednesday, by ED assistant director Satyaveer Singh and team. Kartha had skipped previous summons by ED citing medical reasons. P6 Cyber attack row: UDF in defensive mode Kozhikode: UDF leaders have adopted a defensive stance against the cyber attack on K K Shailaja, the LDF candidate in Vadakara. Leader of Opposition V D Satheeshan and Vadakara MLA K K Rema have accused the LDF of trying to divert public attention. P5 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. surya tejas Sunlight being directed onto the forehead of the Ram Lalla idol at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on Wednesday to mark Ram Navami. It was called Surya tilak | PTI 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 their religious duties or fulfilling their democratic responsibilities, and facilitate their participation in both. The prominent Palayam jamaath committee in Thiruvananthapuram announced that the Jumu’ah on April 26 will be curtailed and held from 1pm to 1.20pm instead of the usual 12.45pm to 1.30pm. Oz tourist tears down pro-Palestine posters, booked E x p ress Ne w s S er 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 ar raigned 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 The Australian tourist seen arguing with a Student Islamic Organisation of India member after the incident on Monday Extreme heat plays spoilsport, domestic tourists not warming up to Kerala for now 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 which has been heavily reliant , on domestic tourists since the easing of the pandemic. According to stakeholders, compared with previous years, the industry has witnessed a significant dip in bookings since mid-March, which suggests a considerable drop in domestic tourists visiting the state. In the past years, vacationers from all over the country thronged Kerala for its idyllic climate and natural beauty, but extreme temperatures and constant yellow alerts are forcing vacationers to pick other cooler destinations like Kashmir. As per industry insiders, there has been a 30-40% drop in domestic tourists at all major tourist destinations in Kerala, including Munnar. In 2023, around 2.18 crore domestic tourists visited Kerala, which was 15.92% more compared with 2022. “There is a significant decline in domestic tourist arrivals. The April-May summer break is supposed to be peak season for domestic tourism. Unfortunately because of the extreme heat situation, 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 decrease in occupancy compared with previous years. Occupancy was almost full in the last two years, and there was not much difference during weekdays and weekends. But now there is a 3040% drop in bookings in general,” ● More on P6 Manzoor said. DMK locked in gruelling fight to stay as Raja of 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 tourists in droves. However, the political temperature has soared in the old mountain ranges as it witnesses an ideological battle between BJP’s L Murugan, a minister of state in Modi’s mini s t r y, a n d DMK’s A Raja, ex-minister in UPA2, in this reserved constituency . Raja and Murugan are locked in a fierce three-cornered battle with Lokesh Tamilselvan of AIADMK, son of P Dhanapal who was speaker of the Tamil Nadu assembly for nearly 10 years up to May 2021. A native of Namakkal, Murugan was actively involved in ABVP “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 committees are also opting to reschedule Jumu’ah to help believers cast votes without relinquishing the obligatory 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 Musliarled 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 of, ficers, can attend the prayer as per their convenience,” Saifu● More on P6 deen said. (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyar thi constituency and lost to DMK’s N Parishad) in his college days and Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, who went on later joined RSS. Between 2017 and to become state minister for Adi 2020, he served as Vice Chairman Dravidar Welfare, by a slim marof the National Commission for gin of 1,393 votes. Within a month, Scheduled Castes (NCSC). During he was rewarded for his party this period, he closely worked with work and inducted into the Union people belonging to the SC commucabinet. nity In March 2020, he became the . Like Coimbatstate president of the BJP the sec, ore, the BJP has ond person from a Dalit commuwon the Nilgiris nity to hold the post after S P seat twice in 1998 Kirubanidhi. and 1999, after the In the 2021 infamous 1998 TN AssemCoimbatore sebly election rial bomb blast when the BJP incident. In was in an alli1998, contestance with the ing as part AIADMK, Muof an allirugan contestance with ed from the the AIADDharapuram MK, BJP candidate M Illustration: Mandar Pardikar reserved 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. This is why the BJP fancies its chances of victory here. In fact, Murugan once said Nilgiris was one of the nine Lok Sabha constituencies in the state where the party has a good chance of winning. It is for this reason that he started his poll-related works here quite early by setting up election offices, frequently visiting the district to meet party cadre and interacting with the public. In February when , the BJP nominated him to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, there was speculation that he might not enter the Lok Sabha poll fray Yet, to the surprise of many, . he was fielded as the BJP candidate here. touch with the police and FRRO, and is looking to move the women out of Kochi once legal procedures are over. Mattancherry ACP Manoj K R said they have not detained the tourists. “They are currently in the homestay. We have collected their statements,” he said. The incident came to light after videos showing one of the tourists arguing with Kamalakadavu residents, who questioned her action, were circulated on so● More on P6 cial media. EC flags down Bengal guv’s poll-time trip M U K E S H R AN J AN @ New Delhi The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday asked West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose to cancel his proposed two-day visit to the state’s Cooch Behar district that was to start on the eve of election day, saying it would violate the Model Code of Conduct. Cooch Behar is among the three West Bengal constituencies voting in the first of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on Friday. “Under the Model Code of Conduct and being poll day, no local programme can be organised for Honorable Governor, as proposed in his issued schedule,” ECI said in its advisory to the governor’s office. The poll panel noted that the entire district administration and the police force would be busy with election management duties on Bose’s proposed travel dates (April 181 9 ) . D u r i n g t h i s t i m e, providing protocol services and local security cover to the governor will divert them from the time-bound poll-related work, the ECI said in its advisory It also cited the “si. lence period” in Cooch Behar, which came into effect at 6pm on Wednesday The silence pe. riod brings in a multitude of restrictions and a higher level of enforcement by election authorities. West Bengal, with 42 constituencies, is among states where voting will take place across all seven phases.
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