kochi l thursday l October 31, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION Buckingham Palace confirms TNIE report on Charles’ secret India visit The Buckingham Palace confirmed King Charles and Queen Camilla visited Bengaluru for wellness treatment before returning to the UK from Samoa Charles and Camilla during one of their previous visits for treatment | Source: SIHHC B’luru Stop was to break long trip to U.K. not connected to cancer treatment A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the stopover was to help break the long journey to the United Kingdom from Samoa. “Their Majesties had a short private stopover in India to help break the long journey back from Samoa,” the spokesperson said. They arrived on October 27 and stayed at Soukya International Holistic Health Centre located in Whitefield, Bengaluru ■ ■ ■ Charles is under treatment for cancer after being diagnosed with the disease earlier this year. Sources said the visit was not connected to the cancer treatment, which he will resume upon return to the UK He planted a Jacaranda sapling in the Soukya campus, an official said Charles and Camilla were on a 10-day official trip to Australia and Samoa 75-yr-old King Charles had stayed at soukya retreat nine times earlier 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 Disengagement complete, troops to swap sweets India, China wrap up troop pullback from Demchok & Depsang; joint verification is on cation process is progressing and talks are currently on Patrolling will soon begin about the routes, schedule, and at Demchok and Depsang the patrolling size. Each patrolPlains in eastern Ladakh, as ling unit will have a maximum Indian and Chinese troops have of 20 personnel, who will be completed disengagement at carrying their weapons. these friction points along the “The withdrawals are mutuLine of Actual Control (LAC), al and will proceed in phases. sources said on Wednesday To Patrolling may take time, de. mark the de-escalation of ten- pending on the removal of sions and improvestructures set up ment in the overall since the April 2020 mood, the military clashes. Physical personnel will celeverification and surbrate Diwali by exveillance are being changing sweets at conducted in these the traditional areas,” sources points along the said. 3,488-km long LAC. The current disSweet spots engagement is only “The disengagement is complete Troops will exchange for Depsang and and modalities for sweets at traditional D e m ch o k . A r my points — the five patrolling are being sources said that Border Personnel firmed up between talks regarding paground command- Meeting (BPM) huts trolling in other on each side of the ers,” said an Army stand-off points in source. Troops from Line of Actual Control Eastern Ladakh will both sides have dis- spread out in Eastern continue. Troops engaged and shuf- and Western sectors from both sides have fled back to their already disengaged designated points as per the from five other friction points, agreement reached between which came up in May 2020 afthe Corps Commanders of In- ter the People’s Liberation dia and China. Army moved in its personnel to The disengagement process these areas after the clashes at involves joint verification on the Finger Four on the North the ground regarding the troop bank of the Pangong Tso. The and equipment pullback to a patrolling limits and buffer mutually agreed distance from zones in these areas found no the face-off sites. Sources told mention in the agreement for this newspaper that the verifi- Demchok and Depsang Plains. M AYA N K SI N GH @ New Delhi @Kasaragod The police have added attempt to murder charges against the accused persons in connection with the explosion during the fireworks display at Anjoottambalam Veerarkavu temple in Kasaragod’s Nileshwar on Tuesday that left 102 people injured. One more person, who was not named in the FIR, was arrested on Wednesday taking , the total arrests to four. Search is on for the remaining five accused persons. As of now, 98 people are undergoing treatment in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, and Mangaluru. Seven are on ventilator support. They include a Nileshwar resident who suffered more than 45% burns and is being treated in Kannur. The cabinet has decided to bear the medical expenses of the injured persons. The Nileshwar police had registered a case under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, and named eight persons as accused in the incident. Of them, three were arrested on Tuesday A nine-member special in. vestigation team led by Kanhangad DySP Babu Peringeth took over the probe on Wednesday and arrested Vijayan, 62, of Nileshwar. He was not included among the accused persons initially . “Vijayan was associated with handling of the crackers. We have intensified the search for the absconding accused,” ● More on P4 Babu said.  A Canadian minister admitted before a parliamentary panel that he outed Union home minister Amit Shah’s name to a US newspaper as having allegedly ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence-gathering targeting Sikh separatists inside Canada. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told members of the national security committee that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which first reported the al- The annual Diwali celebration for the Indo-Canadian community at Parliament Hill was abruptly cancelled by Leader of the Opposition Pierre Poilievre. According to the organisers, the Overseas Friends of India Canada, this was communicated to them abruptly without any explanation legations in connection with the murder of Khalistani radical Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June last year. Suresh Gopi assures support to agitating Munambam families bring your plight to the Centre’s notice,” the actorpolitician said in his signaAssuring wholehearted ture style. support to the 600-odd famHe told the protesters: “I ilies in Munambam who see your tears. You are cryare fighting the Waqf ing tears of blood. They Board’s claim to their land, won’t go unnoticed. The soUnion Minister of State called people’s representaSuresh Gopi on tives are not sinWe d n e s d ay a c cere. They are into cused the Conv o t e - b a n k gress-led UDF and politics.” the ruling LDF of More than 600 I see your (Munambam p l ay i n g “ vo t e families from Mufamilies) tears. bank politics” by nambam in ErYou are crying not taking up the nakulam’s Vypeen tears of blood. issue. were left in the They won’t go “It is shameful lurch after the unnoticed. The that no people’s so-called people’s Waqf Board inre presentatives cluded their land representatives have met the famiin its assets are not sincere lies and offered records. Suresh Gopi, Union help to them. HowPending court Minister of State ever, that’s not me. cases have added I stand with you to their misery as and will do my best to get they can neither sell nor the Waqf (Amendment) mortgage the land to raise Bill passed,” the Thrissur money for marriages, their MP told agitators protest- children’s education or ing under the aegis of the build houses. The majority Munambam-Kadappuram of the families belong to Land P r o t e c t i o n the Latin Catholic commuCommittee. nity while around 200 hail , “I never go anywhere un- from Ezhava, Dheevara invited. Since you asked and Kudumbi communi● More on P4 me, I decided to come. I will ties.  E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kochi Let there be light Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra general secretary Champat Rai offer prayers at the Ram Mandir on the eve of the Diwali festival, in Ayodhya on Wednesday. This is the first Diwali after the Ram Lalla idol was consecrated in the temple | PTI New rules in place to analyse, grade bomb threat to flights MUK E SH R A N J A N @ New Delhi The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has issued new rules to deal with the recent avalanche of bomb threats to flights across the country. They include figuring out the pseudonymous or anonymous nature of the social media handle from where the threat emerges, geopolitical analysis and the presence of VIPs on board before determining the nature of the threat, officials said on Wednesday . If the threat is categorised as specific, it would trigger the whole range of established security protocols of diverting an aircraft, sending it to an isolation bay, and conducting fresh anti-sabotage checks of passengers and their belongings. But if it is determined a hoax, the flight will be allowed But Morrison did not share any proof of Shah’s alleged involvement in the case. “The journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the committee. Bilateral relations went into deeper freeze after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently alleged that the Indian government had a role in the killing Nijjar. Both sides expelled six diplomats each. While India accuses Canada of not even sharing a shread of evidence to support its theory, the latter claims it has ample proof. Quick analysis of threat potential to flights As per the new protocol, the BTAC will establish the identity of the person or outfit making the threat, check its credentials to see if it belongs to a terrorist or proscribed outfit, and ascertain the motive and specific socioeconomic and political situation that could be linked to the threat to proceed normally Hundreds . of hoax calls were categorised as non-specific ever since the new rules kicked in on October 19, avoiding all the hassle, sources said. Before the rules were revamped, all flights that received bomb threats had to be immediately grounded for security check. Over the past few weeks, more than 510 domestic and international flights received hoax bomb threats, mostly through anonymous handles on social media platform X. Recently the National Inves, tigation Agency positioned its cyber wing personnel with the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) and stationed them at each of the major airports across the country . The BTAC is tasked with analysing a bomb or security threat to airline, airport or any part of the civil aviation ecosystem and decide whether it is specific or serious or non-specific or hoax. It adopts a multi-layered approach to assess the credibility of the threats. E X P RE S S REA D B R Naidu, owner of TV 5, is TTD chairman Tirupati: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has announced its new governing board with 24 members, appointing Bollineni Rajagopal Naidu, popularly known as B R Naidu, as chairman. Three MLAs from AP, along with five members from Telangana and three from Karnataka are among those who have been given seats on the board. P5 RG Kar: CBI files report on ‘illegal’ appointment Kolkata: The CBI has submitted a report in the Calcutta HC regarding “illegal appointment” of house staff at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital during the tenure of former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh. CBI’s probe into the rape-murder of a trainee doctor and alleged financial irregularities at the Kolkata hospital revealed corruption in appointment of house staff by Dr Ghosh, sources said. P8 18 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express Union Minister Suresh Gopi receives an idol of Velankanni Matha as gift from Fr Antony Tharayil, vicar of Kadappuram Velankanni Church, at Munambam in Ernakulam | A Sanesh So far this year Keralites lost `635 cr to scammers, just `87 cr recovered S h an A S @T’Puram Wayanad Will categorise disaster in two weeks, Centre tells HC High-level committee will take call on declaring July 30 landslides as falling under L3 category. Categorisation to automatically bring in more funds and also waiver of loans, says Centre | P5 Cyber scammers are on the prowl in Kerala, targeting anyone from farmers, IT professionals, pensioners to even priests. As per latest reports, fraudsters swindled a whopping `635 crore from gullible Keralites until October 28 this year through different scams, top among them being online trading and job scams. The amount siphoned off is three times what fraudsters bilked from people last year. With two months to go until targeted by fraudsters Private employees Homemakers Businesspersons Pensioners NRIs Techies Doctors Govt employees 613 338 319 320 224 218 115 108 Trading Job scam Courier scam Loan apps Gift scams Debit/credit/ SIM card fraud 2025, this figure is expected to touch `800 crore. Despite their best efforts, enforcement authorities could retrieve just about `87.5 crore — a little over 1,157 1,002 211 85 82 67 victims as per Age E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Diwali celebration off Scams in play Murder attempt charge included, 4th accused held Ye s h i Se l i @ New Delhi Job profile of victims cracker mishap Canada minister Morrison says he named Shah in nijjar case 20-30 yrs 30-40 yrs 40-50 yrs 50-60yrs Above 60 637 981 552 444 426 SOURCE: Kerala Polie cyber investigation wing 10% of the money lost — the data from the Kerala Police cyber investigation division has revealed. In all, nearly one lakh inci- dents of fraud came to light in the state this year, while around 32,000 cases were registered. The statistics reveal that scammers targeted all sections of Kerala’s population. Victim profiling done in cases where the amount lost was over `1 lakh revealed that private employees (613), homemakers (338), businesspersons (319), NRIs (224), IT professionals (218), doctors (115), defence personnel (53), engineers (46), farmers (21) and priests (8) were among those conned. There were about 3,050 cases where the amount swindled ex- ceeded `1 lakh. An analysis also revealed that most victims fell for trading scams (1,157), followed by job scams (1,002) and courier scams (211). And as per the age profiling done, most victims were aged between 30 and 40 years (981), followed by those in the 20-30 (637) and 40-50 (552) age groups. Cyber division officials confirmed an upsurge in online financial scams and said the scammers were resorting to myriad ways to bamboozle ● More on P4 their victims.