kochi l monday l November 04, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION India, China made some progress in disengagement, says Jaishankar India and China have made ‘some progress’ in disengagement, the foreign minister said while interacting with the Indian diaspora in Brisbane It opens up possibility for other steps: EAM India has big role to play in west Asia “In terms of India and China, yes, we have made some progress,” he said, adding that the disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh, agreed by India and China, is a welcome step. S Jaishankar said it could open up the possibility that “other steps could happen” that would improve the ties further. He arrived in Australia on Saturday and will fly to Singapore later ■ ■ Jaishankar said India is “trying to do something” to bring peace in both Ukraine and West Asia. In case of the latter, India is one of the few countries that can mediate between Israel and Iran to stop a wider war He said there’s genuine goodwill and desire among nations to work with India. “We see a sentiment overall for India to succeed,” Jaishankar said Fourth Indian consulate in Australia to be inaugurated in Brisbane by Jaishankar 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 12 injured as terrorists lob grenade on Srinagar crowd CRPF vehicle was the target; L-G asks forces to crush terror outfits F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar A day after Srinagar witnessed the first encounter in two years, militants on Sunday carried out a grenade attack at the crowded flea market in the city , injuring 12 people, including two women. The condition of one person is critical. After the attack, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha directed security officials to use full force and crush the terror outfits. Sources said militants lobbed a grenade towards a vehicle of paramilitary CRPF at Sunday Market near Tourist Reception Centre. The attack happened in the afternoon when the place was crowded with people thronging the flea market to buy woollens and other items. “The grenade missed the intended target and exploded on a road. It caused splinter injuries to those present on the spot,” a police official said. The injured were evacuated to nearby SMHS hospital, where doctors attended to them. Medical Superintendent Dr Tasneem Showkat told this newspaper that of one the injured is in critical condition while the rest are stable. The grenade attack caused panic in the area with the people running helter-skelter. The grenade attack took place a day after an encounter Will implement UCC, tribals to be exempt: Shah M U K E S H R A N J A N @ Ranchi Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday that the BJP will implement the Unifor m Civil Code (UCC) in Jharkhand if it wins the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, but would keep the tribals out of the law’s ambit. “Uniform Civil Code will definitely be introduced in Jharkhand, but the tribal community will be kept out of its ambit,” Shah said. “They (The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Congress) are spreading rumours that if the UCC is intro- duced in the state, the art and culture of the tribal population will be ruined,” he said. Releasing the BJP’s manifesto, ‘Sankalp Patra’, for the upcoming elections in Jharkhand, Shah alleged that the JMM-led state government has failed to protect the tribal land from ‘intruders’. He said if the BJP forms gover nment in the state, it will bring laws to prevent the transfer of tribal land to infiltrators and take back the land already g rabbed by them.“If the BJP forms government, we will make a law to return the land to the innocent tribals of Jharkhand,” Shah said. Training his guns on Soren, Shah said the chief minister insulted Champai Soren by unceremoniously removing him from the post of CM to satisfy his lust for power. Reacting to Shah’s promise to implement the UCC, Soren vowed that neither the UCC nor the National Registry of Citizens will be implement- Winter session likely from Nov 25, Centre may introduce Waqf bill Forensic team collects samples from the attack site in Srinagar on Sunday | PTI P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi in Khyanyar area of Srinagar in which a top Lashkar commander was killed. There has been a surge in militant violence and attacks in Jammu and Kashmir after the civilian government led by Omar Abdullah took charge as chief minister on October 16. THE winter session of Parliament is likely to commence on November 25 and will continue until December 20, according to sources. During the session, the government will introduce the contentious One Nation One Election and Waqf bills. The results of the Jharkhand and Maharashtra assembly elections, which will come on November 23, will also have a significant bearing on the session. Still smarting from the Haryana defeat, the Congress and its allies in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are pinning their J&K assembly session from today The legislative assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will meet for a five-day session on Monday. NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather is set to be the Speaker “The last few days have been dominated by headlines of attacks and encounters in parts of the Valley Today’s news of a . grenade attack on innocent shoppers... is deeply disturbing. There can be no justification for targeting innocent civilians,” Omar Abdullah said. Lt Governor Manoj Sinha spoke to DGP Nalin Prabhat and senior security officials. “Terrorists targeting citizens will have to pay a very heavy price for their actions. You have full freedom to crush terror outfits and leave no stone unturned to complete this mission,” Sinha told the senior security officials. Top bureaucrat courts row over Hindu officers’ WhatsApp group hopes on wresting power in Maharashtra while retaining the Hemant Soren-led government in Jharkhand. The results will dominate the tone and tenor of the session. Sources said the government may also pass a resolution to grant full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, a crucial step towards reinstating constitutional rights and safeguarding the unique identity of the region’s residents. Recently, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to discuss the issues related to the Union Territory in, cluding early restoration of statehood. According to sources, a special joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament will be held on November 26 to mark the 75th anniversary of adopting the Constitution of India. The joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is likely to be held in the Central Hall of the Samvidhan Sadan, where the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on November 26, 1949, and it came into effect on January 26, 1950. If the government introduces the One Nation, One Election Bill in Parliament, it will face stiff resistance as several opposition-ruled states are opposed to the proposal, saying it is against the Constitution. E X P R E S S R EA D Case registered against Suresh Gopi Thrissur: The Town East police in Thrissur registered a case against Suresh Gopi, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, on Sunday for allegedly misusing ambulance service during the Thrissur Pooram festival. P4 Threat calls: Bishnoi’s brother booked Gurugram: The police have booked Anmol Bishnoi, brother of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, for allegedly making threatening calls to Bhim Sena chief Satpal Tanwar from abroad, an officer said. According to the complaint, Bhim Sena chief received several phone calls from Anmol on October 30 with the threat that he would cut him in pieces K-Rail: Centre asks state to address issues to take project forward E x p ress N ews S ervice @Thrissur C ynthia C han d ran & V arsha S o maraj @ T’ Puram Industries and commerce director K Gopalakrishnan has courted controversy over a WhatsApp group — ‘Mallu Hindu Off ’ — with Hindu bureaucrats as members that he allegedly created. The IAS officer’s colleagues had received WhatsApp notifications of being added to the group. The group was reportedly started on Diwali day, with Gopalakrishnan allegedly sending invites to not just serving Hindu IAS officers but also retired chief secr e t a r i e s belonging to the community . After the issue snowballed into a major controversy, 11 WhatsApp groups that were created in his name were deleted. Maintaining that his phone had been hacked, Gopalakrishnan told TNIE that the groups were not created by him. He said ‘Mallu Muslim Off ’ was among the groups that were created in his name. The majority of the bureaucrats received a WhatsApp notification on Thursday informing them of being added to the ‘Mallu Hindu Off ’ group. A middle-level bureaucrat with over a decade-long experience told TNIE that he was caught off-guard when he received a notification from Gopalakrishnan — for mer Thiruvananthapuram and Malappuram district collector — informing him of being added to the WhatsApp group. “I was intrigued by the name of the group, ‘Mallu Hindu Off ’, when I received the notification on Thursday By the time I de. cided to call Gopalakrishnan, he had deleted the group,” the ● More on P4 bureaucrat said.  ed in the state. Senior BJP leaders including Jharkhand election in-charge Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Assam Chief Minister and co-election in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma attended the function to launch the ‘Sankalp Patra’. Shah said the BJP will launch ‘GoGo Didi Yojna’ in the state if elected. Under the scheme, `2,100 will be transferred to poor women on the 11th day of every month. Besides, free LPG cylinders will be given to poor households on Diwali and Raksha Bandhan, P8 he said.  finishing touch A worker cleaning the newly laid synthetic track at the Maharaja’s College stadium, in Kochi, on the eve of the inauguration of the Kerala State School Sports Meet | A Sanesh The Kerala State School Sports Meet — biggest school sporting event in India — will be held across 13 venues in and around Kochi 24,000 students from schools across the state, 1,562 students with special needs and 50 students from schools in the Gulf countries will compete in the meet This is the first time that children with special needs and those from the Gulf countries are participating Another speciality of the 21st edition of the Kerala State School Sports Meet is that it has been modelled on the Olympics | P5 The Kerala government’s ambitious K-Rail project received a fresh lease of life with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday assuring that the project can be taken forward once the state addresses the technical and environmental issues expeditiously . “The Kerala chief minister and myself recently met in New Delhi and we discussed it (the K-Rail project). I requested the (honorable) chief minister that whatever technical and environmental issues are there in the design of K-Rail... address them expeditiously so that this project can also be taken forward. The NDA government believes in cooperative federalism (sic),” Vaishnaw said, addressing reporters and public at the Thrissur railway station during his window trailing inspection held I requested the chief minister that whatever technical and environmental issues are there in the design of K-Rail... address them expeditiously so that the project can be taken forward Ashwini Vaishnaw, Railway Minister between Er nakulam and Kozhikode railway stations. The K-Rail project — referred to as SilverLine — is a 530-km-long semi high-speed rail corridor from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod with an estimated cost of `64,000 crore, as per its website. However, experts reckon that the project will end up costing least `1 lakh crore. As per the plan, the SilverLine would allow an operating speed of 200kmph, easing transport between the north and south ends of the state by reducing total travel time to less than four hours, compared with the present 10 to 12 hours. The intermediate stations include Kollam, Chengannur, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Kochi Airport, Thrissur, Tirur, Kozhikode and Kannur. At the same time, Vaishnaw criticised the state government saying only 14% of the land required for railway development in Kerala has been acquired so far. He said while his office was continuously kee ping in touch with the authoritiesin Kerala, the response has been unimpressive. “For the ongoing rail line doubling projects in Kerala, we need 460 hectares of land. So far, we have got about 63 hectares, which is 14%. We have deposited about `2,100 crore and I am constantly following up with the state government,” he said.  ● More on P4 humiliation at home Gone with the spin in less than 10 days: Why India crumbled G o mesh S @ Mumbai INDIA did not have any tangible answer to New Zealand’s, what seemed like, an infinite variety of cricket. If the hosts perished to some immaculate pace bowling under overcast conditions, almost England– like in Bengaluru, and later, on turning tracks in Pune and Mumbai, the batters scratched their heads like students struggling to find solutions to multiple problems. Only Risabh Pant stood among the ruins. The ending seemed inevitable on Sunday. After all, for the nine days of cricket India and New Zealand have had in this series, the visitors outperformed India in almost every single one. The tenth day (of the three-Test series) was no different either as New Zealand became the first team to beat India in three consecutive Tests at home. While Tom Latham’s side was spot on in every move, captain Rohit Sharma’s every move seemed to have backfired. He admitted as much after the loss here. “Something like this will be a low point in my career. I fully take responsibility for that as a 92 New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel (3L) and Devon Conway (L) shake hands with India’s Virat Kohli (2R) and captain Rohit Sharma (2L). Ravindra Jadeja is also seen in the picture (extreme right) | AFp India have been clean swept in a Test series at home (3 matches or more) for the first time in 92 years of their history captain. I have not been at the best of my abilities right from the start of the series. With the bat, I have not been good enough,” Sharma said. It all began in Bengaluru when Sharma misread the pitch and opted to bat. The chances of recovery were slim after the 46 all out in the first innings. In search of a win, India opted for a surface that would assist spinners in Pune. However, it was Mitchell Santner who outfoxed the host batters. The second Test loss exposed the struggles of the most experienced batters against spin. In Mumbai, on another rank turner, India went into self-destruct mode. On Sunday, too, the collapse began with Sharma’s miscued pull against Matt Henry. They slumped to 29/5 and eventually fell short by 25 runs while chasing 147. India are in transition where the seniors, including Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin, are in the November of their careers. India’s last home series defeat came 12 years ago. The dominance that followed and the fall in the last three weeks would make this one of the lowest phases in the history of Indian cricket.