kozhikode l tuesday l july 08, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Tahawwur Rana was in Mumbai to oversee 26/11 carnage Tahawwur Rana, the 26/11 mastermind, has admitted he was present in Mumbai during the 2008 attacks as a trusted agent of Pakistan ‘conducted many surveillance missions’ rana was involved in aiding the attack Even as Rana remains under NIA custody in Tihar Jail, his statement was recorded by Mumbai Police Crime Branch. Rana told interrogators that he had conducted many reconnaissance missions of several areas in Mumbai ahead of the 2008 attacks and was present in the area when Lashkar-eTaiba-linked terrorists attacked the Taj Hotel and went on a rampage ■ ■ The NIA has charged Rana for hatching a conspiracy to carry out the attacks along with friend David Headley, who is a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative and another key conspirator in the gruesome 26/11 attacks Rana was involved in planning the attacks and helped Headley in getting a visa by creating a false identity to help him travel to India 166 people were killed in the 26/11 attacks in mumbai 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 SC to hear pleas against Bihar EC fiat on Thursday Bench says timeline has no sanctity as polls for the state assembly are yet to be notified S U C H I TRA K A LYA N M O HA N T Y @ New Delhi Why fresh exercise? “Bihar’s voter list was finalised in January 2025. The ECI itself acknowledged this. Revisions were made until June. Then, suddenly, it was discarded… Without any proof, without discrepancies, 70 million voters now have to prove citizenship again,” Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said This is mass scale rigging and mischief being carried out by the ECI, under instructions from the ruling regime... It has wreaked havoc across the villages and towns of Bihar K C Venugopal, Cong The Supreme Court on Monday decided to hear on July 10, Thursday a batch of pleas chal, lenging an order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The batch of petitions included a joint Opposition plea filed on Monday Its signatories . are K C Venugopal of the Congress, Supriya Sule of NCP (Sharad Pawar), Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena (UBT), Harinder Malik of Samajwadi Party Sarfraz Ahmed of JMM, D Raja of , CPI and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML). Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the pleas filed before a two-judge bench comprising justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi. “We will have it on Thursday,” the bench said. Sibal urged the court to issue a notice to the ECI, adding it will be impossible for the people to meet the tight timeline for enumeration. Other lawyers who made their submissions were Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Shadan Farasat and Gopal Shankarnarayanan. They argued that voters who fail to submit their forms with the specified documents will face the harsh consequence of being deleted from the electoral roll, even if they have voted in elections for the last 20 years. Singhvi said while the size of the electorate is 8 crore, as many as 4 crore will have to do the enumeration. “The timeline is so strict — by July 25 if you don’t give, you will be out,” Singhvi pointed out. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for another petitioner, said the poll panel was not accepting Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards as proof for the enumeration. The bench, however, contended that the timeline “doesn’t have sanctity as elections have not been notified as yet”. It asked the petitioners to give advance notice to the counsel for the ECI. Apart from the joint petition by Opposition leaders, at least five other pleas have been filed, including those by the Association For Democratic Reforms, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra, Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha and activist Yogendra Yadav. Countries aligning with BRICS policies will be charged an additional 10% tariff Will redefine BRICS in new form: Modi Under its presidency next year, India will work to define BRICS in a new form—Build Resilience and Innovation for Cooperation and Sustainability—Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday | P7 US announces 25% tariff on Japan, Korea The US will impose 25% blanket tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea starting Aug 1, President Donald Trump revealed through a series of social media posts on Monday | P10 Trump threatens extra 10% tariff on BRICS allies JAYA N TH JA C O B @ New Delhi HOURS after the BRICS leaders criticised the unilateral trade actions and Israel’s military strikes in Iran, US President Donald Trump late on Sunday night threatened to slap an extra 10% tariff on countries that support the bloc. “Any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social. He did not specify which policies were “anti-American” or which women-friendly initiative ‘Fresh-Up Homes’ to come up at remote tourist getaways S h a inu M o h a n @T’Puram Kerala is set to take a major stride in women-friendly tourism with the launch of ‘Fresh-Up Homes’ — an initiative aimed at providing clean and safe rest facilities for female travellers at rural and remote destinations. The initiative, being implemented by the Kerala Responsible Tourism Mission Society (KRTM), aims to address critical infrastructure gaps -- especially the lack of adequate sanitation facilities — in emerging tourist destinations along with women empowerment by offering financial support to 100 women-led Fresh-Up Homes across the state. The RT Mission has allocated `25 lakh for the project. Each Fresh-Up Home will feature essential amenities including a toilet, a bathroom, clean water, ventilation, lighting and a sanitary pad incinerator — creating a safe and hygienic pit stop for women on the move. A senior official with the tourism department said women entrepreneurs registered with the KRTM will receive a financial grant of `25,000 per unit. The subsidy will be disbursed in two instalments — `12,000 upfront and `13,000 after the completion of the facility . “Fresh-Up Homes can be set up on private land owned by the entrepreneur or attached to existing homes, making it a flexible and lowinvestment business model,” the official said.  ● More on P4 probe ORDERED AGAINST SENA MINISTER Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis has ordered an inquiry against Shiv Sena minister Sanjay Shirsat and his son for buying a luxury hotel worth I110 crore much below its value for I67 crore in Sambhaji Nagar by rigging the entire tender process | P8 A file picture of damaged buildings in a residential area after heavy rainfall in Mandi district; (left) Relief material being sent by a helicopter to flood-ravaged residents on Monday | PTI Rescue ops on to trace 30 missing people after Himachal cloudbursts h a r p r e e t b a j w a @ Chandigarh SEARCH and rescue operations in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh were intensified on Monday with the use of drones and sniffer dogs to trace 30 people who went missing after cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides wreaked havoc in the Thunag, Gohar, and Karsog subdivisions last week. A team of 250 personnel from the National and State Disaster Response Forces, Army, IndoTibetan Border Police, and Home Guards, along with the administration and locals, are part of the rescue work. ‘Issue regular updates’ CM Sukhu has directed officials to issue regular weather updates and to counter misinformation circulating on social media The disaster resulted in the deaths of 52 people, with 78 reported deaths since the onset of the monsoon on June 20. Meanwhile, a 10-month-old infant, Nitika, was rescued from the debris of her home in Talwara village. Her father, Ramesh Kumar, was found dead, while her mother and grandmother are still untraced. The infant is currently being taken care of by her aunt. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu expressed concern over the rising incidents of cloudbursts across the state. The local weather office issued a yellow warning for heavy rain at isolated places in four districts of Una, Hamirpur, Solan and Sirmaur districts till Wednesday . As many as 235 roads are closed in the state, of which 176 were in Mandi district alone. Besides, 163 transformers were affected in the state. countries would be targeted. Trump’s threat followed BRICS joint declaration at the summit in Brazil, where member states including India, Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa, and several new entrants criticised protectionist trade practices and foreign military interventions. Without naming the US, the statement voiced “serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures which distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules.” The bloc reaffirmed its support for an inclusive trading system and rejected ‘punitive and discriminatory protec- tionist measures’. The declaration said the proliferation of trade-restrictive actions “threatens to further reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains, and introduce uncertainty into international economic and trade activities”. This is not the first time Trump has targeted BRICS. In June, he threatened to slap 100% tariffs on countries that move to replace the US dollar as the global reserve currency . BRICS, originally formed to amplify the voice of major emerging economies, has since expanded beyond its core members to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. E X P R E S S R E AD Pvt bus operators to go on token strike today Kerala University registrar row intensifies Kochi: Private bus operators will go on a state-wide token strike on July 8. Their primary demands included an increase in student concession fares, withdrawal of limits on long-distance permits and withdrawal of the requirement of police clearance certificates for bus crew. P4 T’Puram: The tussle between the VC and Syndicate landed the Kerala varsity in an unprecedented administrative crisis on Monday. It created a situation that saw two officials — one owing allegiance to the governor’s camp and the other to government — occupying the Registrar post. P5 Sinking of Elsa-3: State seeks `9,531 cr in damages E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v ic e @Kochi The state government on Monday moved the High Court seeking a compensation of `9,531 crore for the losses suffered in connection with the sinking of container vessel MSC Elsa-3 off Kerala coast on May 25. The state government filed an admiralty suit against MSC Akiteta II, a Liberian-flagged sister vessel of Elsa-3, to secure the compensation amount for the damage caused to the economy, environment and the livelihood of fishermen following the sinking of the container vessel owned by Mediterranean Shipping Company . Considering the plea, the court ordered the arrest of Akiteta II, currently docked at the Vizhinjam port, until `9,531 is deposited by the shipping company in the court. The court will consider the case on July 10. The state argued that Elsa-3 was carrying over 643 containers, which included hazardous cargo and plastic pellets known ● More on P4 as ‘nurdles’.  Worker dies, another trapped as massive rockfall hits quarry E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v ic e @Pathanamthitta A worker died and another remained trapped following a massive rockfall at a quarry in Payyanamon near Konni in Pathanamthitta on Monday . Mahadev Pradhan, 51, of Odisha, and Ajay Kumar Rai, 38, from Bihar were reportedly operating an excavator at the granite quarry when a huge rock dislodged and fell on the machine, burying them under the rubble. The excavator was crushed under the impact. The rescue team later recovered the body of Pradhan, while Rai remains trapped under large boulders. The rescue efforts were called off by evening due to adverse weather and a second rockfall, which posed danger to rescue personnel. Officials said the search operation -- with police, fire and rescue services and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel joining hands — will resume at 7am on Tuesday . . The accident occurred deep within the quarry, causing a The mangled remains of the excavator is seen in the quarry where a worker was killed after a rockfall, in Payyanamon, Pathanamthitta | Shaji Vettipuram significant delay in alerting authorities. Also, the rescue efforts were severely hampered by the massive size of the boulders and the unstable terrain. Pathanamthitta Collector S Prem Krishnan, who was supervising the rescue efforts, had to be moved from the site after another rockfall struck the area. According to Fire and Rescue Services officials, they were alerted about the incident around 3.20pm and reached the site within 20 minutes. Howev- er, as the accident site was inaccessible, it took another hour to set up rescue equipment and ropes to safely descend into the quarry pit. Rescue personnel managed to rescue two other machine operators, who were stranded near the collapse zone, an official said. The team also recovered a body from the site. NDRF personnel were called in for rescue efforts and they reached by 7pm. Meanwhile, the collector has directed that the quarry operation be shut till further orders.  ● More on P4 daily soap Kyunki neta again abhineta, Smriti back as Tulsi K a r t ik B h a r a d w a j @ Mumbai Straddled two powerful platforms in 25 years Actor-politician Smriti Irani will be returning to play the role of Tulsi Virani in the reboot of Ektaa Kapoor’s 2000s iconic daily soap, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. “Some journeys come full circle, not for nostalgia, but for purpose. Returning to Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is not just a step back into a role, but a return to a story that redefined Indian television and reshaped my own life,” Smriti said in a statement. “Today, I stand at a crossroads where experience meets emotion, and creativity meets conviction. I return not just as an actor, but as someone who Smriti said she straddled two powerful platforms — media and public policy — in the last 25 years, adding both have their own impact with “each demanding a different kind of commitment” Smriti’s first look as Tulsi in Kyunki believes in the power of storytelling to spark change, preserve culture, and build empathy she added. ,” The show will to return to its original platform, Star Plus, on July 28. Other than Smriti, the serial will also star Amar Upadhyay, who will return in the role of Mihir. Hiten Tejwani, and Gauri Pradhan will also be seen reprising their roles from the show’s original version. In a recent media interaction, Smriti revealed that there were talks about a reboot to the series in 2014, but she had to reject the offer because of her sojourn into politics. However, Ektaa took to social media to claim that such an idea wasn’t in the works at all. She later deleted the post. Smriti, who served as Union minister across multiple portfolios from 2014 to 2024, lost the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi to Sonia Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma by over 1.5 lakh votes, a constituency she had wrested from Rahul Gandhi in 2019. With her return to acting, does this mean a sabbatical from politics, or is it just a calm before the 2029 storm, Kyunki Actor Bhi Kabhi Politician Thi? ‘Kyunki’ aired from 2000 to 2008 and was the most successful serial of its time, with TRPs in double digits for many years.