TIRUCHY l thursday l december 26, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE CITY EDITION Zelenskyy berates putin over ‘inhumane’ attack on Christmas Russia targeted Ukraine’s power infrastructure with more than 180 missiles and drones in a massive Christmas Day attack on Wednesday Russia launched 78 missiles, 106 drones: Kyiv One power plant worker killed in Donetsk “Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhumane?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. As many as 78 air, ground, and sea-launched missiles, 106 Shaheds and other types of drones were used in the strikes that targeted multiple cities, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones ■ ■ This is the 13th large-scale strike on Ukraine’s energy system this year. Ukraine’s biggest private energy company, DTEK, said Russia struck one of their thermal power plants in Donetsk, killing an employee Ukraine said one of the missiles fired by Russia passed through the airspaces of Moldova and NATO member Romania | P9 5 lakh people are without power in Kharkiv region after russian strikes 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 Taliban vows to hit back after Pakistani strikes kill 46 in Af Agencies Afghan Taliban on Wednesday said 46 people were killed in Pakistani airstrikes in Barmal in eastern Afghanistan and vowed to retaliate. Pakistan carried out rare airstrikes inside Afghanistan on Tuesday, which Islamabad said targeted members of the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistani security officials said the strikes were on “terrorist hideouts” and at least 20 terrorists of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), were killed. But the Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed most of the dead were children and women. Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Pakistani envoy and lodged a protest. The Afghan Defence Ministry vowed to retaliate, saying, “The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered.” The strikes come after the TTP claimed a raid on a Pakistan army outpost that killed 16 soldiers. A Pakistani official said the attack was “a significant trigger” for Tuesday’s strikes, which also come amid a rise in the number of TTP attacks in Pakistan, especially in its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces. ADIEU m t vasudevan nair Legendary Malayalam writer and Padma Bhushan awardee M T Vasudevan Nair, 91, passed away on Wednesday | P5 Russia-bound jet changed path before crash 29 survive; 16 russians among 67 on board 38 killed in kazakh jetliner crash The wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lays on the ground near Aktau airport | Ap Flight-tracking service FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the airAt least 38 people were killed after a craft had faced ‘strong GPS jamming’ passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to which ‘made the aircraft transmit bad Russia crashed near the city of Aktau ADS-B data’, referring to the informain Kazakhstan on Wednesday, accord- tion that allows flight-tracking webing to Kazakhstan officials. There were sites to follow planes in flight. Russia 67 people on board, including five crew has been blamed in the past for jammembers. Both pilots of the flight were ming GPS signals in the region. also reportedly killed in Reuters reported that the accident. A total of 29 the crash came shortly af‘bad weather’ survivors, including two ter drone strikes hit southSpeaking at a news c h i l d r e n , h ave b e e n ern Russian areas near conference, Azerbaijani hospitalised. Azerbaijan and KazkahPresident Ilham Aliyev The plane was originally stan and the nearest Russcheduled to travel from said that it was too soon sian airport on the plane’s to speculate on the the Azerbaijani capital of flight path was closed on reasons for the crash. Baku to the Russian city We d n e s d ay m o r n i n g . “The information of Grozny in the North FlightRadar24 data showed provided to me is that Caucasus. According to the aircraft making what the plane changed its Azerbaijan Airlines, its appeared to be a figureEmbraer 190 aircraft made course due to worsening eight once nearing the airan emergency landing 3 weather conditions and port in Aktau, its altitude km from Aktau. Reports headed to Aktau airport, moving up and down subwhere it crashed on said the pilot may have stantially in the last landing” Aliyev said. chosen to divert to Aktau minutes. after a bird strike on the Footage circulating onaircraft led to ‘an emergency situation line appeared to show the aircraft makon board’. ing a steep descent before smashing The airline said 42 passengers were into the ground in a fireball. Other footAzerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nation- age showed part of its fuselage ripped als, six Kazakhstani, and three Kyr- away from the wings and the rest of the gyzstani citizens. aircraft, lying upside in the grass. Agencies Human trafficking Canadian colleges UNDER ED SCANNER MUKESH RAN J AN @ New Delhi THE Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing the alleged role of some Canadian colleges as well as Indian entities in a money laundering case linked to the trafficking of Indians into the US through the Canada border, officials said. The ED took up the probe after a four-member Indian family hailing from Gujarat froze to death while trying to cross the Canada-US border in January 2022. The ED case is based on an FIR by Ahmedabad Police against main accused Bhavesh Ashokbhai Patel and others, who allegedly arranged student visas for those willing to enter the US illegally . A senior ED official said the racket charged `55-60 lakh per person. As part of the probe, the ED conducted searches in Mumbai, Nagpur, Gandhinagar, and Vadodara. It found an entity based in Mumbai and another in Nagpur were offering admission for Indians in foreign universities on a commission basis. The ED said about 25,000 students are being referred by one entity and 10,000 students by the other to various colleges outside India every year. Over 150 Canadian colleges have an agreement with one entity and 112 with another. Their involvement is being probed, the ED said. In major reshuffle, Manipur CS is new higher edu secy E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi IN a major bureaucratic reshuffle announced on Wednesday evening, the Centre appointed Vineet Joshi, chief secretary of ethnic violence-hit Manipur, as the higher education secretary while senior IAS officer Arunish , Chawala has been appointed the revenue secretary Pharmaceuticals secre. tary Arunish Chawla has been appointed revenue secretary; Amit Agrawal, CEO of UIDAI, will be the new pharmaceuticals secretary. Textiles secretary Rachna Shah has been appointed secretary, Department of Personnel and Training. The post of revenue secretary had fallen vacant after incumbent Sanjay Malhotra was appointed the governor of the Reserve Bank of India earlier this month  P7 ‘digital arrest’ After 135 scams, man lands in TN police net S i d d h a r t h P r a b h a k a r @ Chennai Investigation by the Avadi police into a cybercrime where `38 lakh was swindled from a retired college lecturer in a ‘digital arrest’ scam has led the cops to an accused whose 13 bank accounts were used in at least 135 similar scams. The accused may have been involved in cheating multiple victims of several crores of rupees through these scams and the illegal proceeds could have been laundered, sources said. Police said that in July Veppancha, vadi resident Mary Janet was ‘digitally arrested’ by scamsters pretending to be officers of ‘CBI’, ‘ED’ and ‘Mumbai cyber crime’. They extorted `38.16 lakh of her funds under the guise of ‘checking if the source of the money was legal’. This has been the modus operandi used in several such scams across India. During investigation, the team led by Avadi cybercrime inspector Pravin Kumar found that `5 lakh of Mary Janet’s money had been transferred to one mule account belonging to the accused Y Bijoy (33), a resident of Anna Nagar in Chennai. Probing further, they found that Bijoy was operating at least 13 accounts in the name of his mother, wife, friends and relatives. Some were also in the name of total strangers living far away in , bank branches at least 15-20km away . Data from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP) showed that these 13 accounts operated by Bijoy were involved in at least 135 complaints filed by residents from across India regarding cyber scams of a similar magnitude totally amounting to several crores. Apart from digital arrest, these accounts were used to launder money scammed from people using online share trading and part-time job offer scams as well, police said.  P5 Anna University student raped inside Guindy campus, 1 held Modi swipe ‘Cong ignored Ambedkar’s contributions’ E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Bhopal AMID the Congress’ protests against Union home minister Amit Shah’s remarks on B R Ambedkar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sought to turn the tables on the grand old party accusing it of denying Baba Saheb credit for his contribution to the development of water resources in the country . “Baba Saheb was the first to understand the importance of river... He was a visionary... contributing to creation of dams,” Modi said while addressing a gathering in Khajuraho, after laying the foundation of the Ken Betwa river linking project. Without naming India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Modi said: “Out of intoxication of giving credit to just one individual the Congress never gave credit to Baba Saheb for his water conservation efforts and visionary thinking that led to creation of big dams.” Referring to the development projects carried out by the government of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who envisioned the national riverlinking initiative in 2002, Modi said Vajpayee was a teacher for many Modi also released a . commemorative postal stamp and coin to mark Vajpayee’s birth centenary . Noting that the Ken-Betwa project will open gateways of prosperity and development for the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Modi alleged Vajpayee’s efforts to address water related challenges were side-lined after 2004 by the Congress. PM Narendra Modi during foundation stone-laying ceremony of Ken-Betwa River Linking Project, in Khajuraho on Wednesday | pti It was Dr Ambedkar’s vision which guided the major river valley projects in the country and the Central Water Commission was established due to his efforts Prime Minister Narendra Modi Project poses threat to tiger reserve: Cong New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday said the KenBetwa river linking project poses a serious threat to the biodiversity-rich Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. In a social media post, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the project will submerge the core area of tiger reserve, destroy vulture habitats, and a large number of felling of trees An undergraduate student of Anna University was allegedly sexually assaulted inside the university campus in Guindy on Monday night. Following an investigation based on the girl’s complaint, the Greater Chennai Police (GCP) on Wednesday arrested 37-yearold Gnanasekaran, a roadside biryani vendor, from nearby Kotturpuram. The issue came to light on Wednesday after the survivor lodged a complaint with the Kotturpuram All-Women Police Station (AWPS). According to the complaint, the incident took place when the girl was chatting with her male friend around 8pm at a deserted spot inside the expansive 189-acre campus of the engineering university. Gnanasekaran, who came to the spot, threatened and assaulted the girl and her friend, the complaint said. After her friend fled the spot, the accused allegedly forced the survivor to perform sexual acts and raped her. Police are yet to ascertain how Gnanasekaran entered the campus premises.  P2