‘Visas of certain Indian biz executives revoked’ The visas of a few Indian business executives were revoked for their alleged involvement in trafficking of fentanyl precursors, the US said. The embassy’s decisions is in keeping with the Trump Administration’s efforts to keep Americans safe from dangerous synthetic narcotics. “Those involved in illegal production, trafficking of drugs to US will face consequences,” affirmed Chargé d’affaires Jorgan Andrews. kollam l friday l september 19, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION 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 ■ ■ ■ ■ Six missing, two dead as rain batters U’khand n a r e n d r a s e t h i @ Dehradun TWO people were killed, five rescued alive while six people are missing as landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rain flattened more than 40 houses in four villages of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Thursday . The deceased were identified as Narendra Singh (42) and Jagdamba Prasad (70). Of the six people still missing, four are from Kuntari Lagaphali and one each is from Kuntari La g asar pani and Dhurma. All four affected villages — Kuntari Lagaphali, Kuntari Lagasarpani, Sera and Dhurma — come under the Nandanagar area, 260 km from Dehradun. Nandanagar is alre a dy reeling from land subsidence. Four people were rescued alive in Kuntari Lagaphali and one in Dhurma village, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Dehradun said. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami directed officials to ensure adequate arrangements is made for shelter, food and water and other amenities for those affected. Those seriously injured, including a child, were airlifted to AIIMS in Rishikesh, Dhami told reporters in Gopeshwar after speaking to officials. ■ ■ Nato-style agreement to treat attack on one country as attack on both India weighs Pak-Saudi def pact JAYANTH JA C O B @ New Delhi INDIA on Thursday said it would assess the security implications of the newly signed Strate gic Mutual Defence Agreement between nucleararmed Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, amid concerns over shifting power dynamics in the Middle East and South Asia. The pact, signed on Wednesday during Pak Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ’s official visit to Riyadh, marks a major upgradation of defence ties between the two countries. It includes a mutual defence clause that says “any aggression against either of the two countries shall be considered as an aggression against both”. The accord was signed in the presence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de-facto ruler, and Pakistan’s powerful army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, highlighting its strategic weight. Im p l i cat i o n s f o r I n d i a India to assess the 1 Pak-Saudi pact’s impact on national security and regional stability Future military 2 conflicts with Pak could technically evoke a response from Saudi Arabia India worried about 3 nuclear proliferation as Pak is expected to provide N-cover to the Saudis Energy security, diaspora safety India is expected to weigh not just the military dimensions of the pact and also its broader strategic implications on energy security, diaspora safety, and the evolving balance of power in the Gulf. Over 8 million Indians live and work across the Gulf, with a substantial population in Saudi Arabia Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif (left) with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after signing a pact in Riyadh | AP The agreement, finalised days after Israeli airstrikes on Qatari soil targeting Hamas leaders, has the potential to reshape regional security alignments as many Gulf states are now questioning the long-term reliability of the US as a security guarantor. It also comes months after the military conflict between India and Pakistan following Phagalgam attack. Reacting to the development, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) offered a measured response. “We have seen reports of the signing of a strategic mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. Pakistan’s decades-old alliance with Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, is deeprooted in shared faith, strategic interests, and deep economic interdependence. It also includes a longstanding military partnership. Between 1,500 and 2,000 Pakistani troops are currently deployed in Saudi Arabia, providing operational, technical, and training support, including to the kingdom’s air and land forces. ‘Pazhampori’ set to get cheaper with GST cut R a j e s h R a v i @Kochi Finally, banana fritters—the humble ‘pazhampori’—are likely to get cheaper by 10% across bakeries in the state, following the nationwide GST tax rationalisation that has reduced the number of slabs to just two. Banana fritters, along with traditional snacks like ‘vada’, ‘ada’, and ‘kozhukatta’, have been moved to the lower slab of 5% from the 18% slab on which they were taxed earlier. Products like mixture and wafers that came under 12% slab earlier have also been placed in the lower slab of 5%. As a result, bakeries in the state are planning to reduce the effective selling price by 7-10% after rationalising their cost structure, according to Vijesh Viswanath, CEO of Bakery B, which has around 50 retail outlets in Ernakulam and its suburbs. “Banana fritters will become cheaper by `1 for those priced around `10 per piece. Big snack manufacturers and bakers have in-principle decided to lower selling price,” he said. “The effective reduction in tax burden for us when the tax gets reduced to 5% from 18% is 11%, but the real benefit to bakeries is nil. Now, we will have to pay 5% tax on inputs like vanaspati and get input credit for the same,” he said.  ● More on P4 Fresh Rahul-CEC spat on ‘vote theft’ in K’taka P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi In yet another exposé on ‘vote theft’, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed large-scale irregularities in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, accusing Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of ‘protecting those murdering democracy’. Rahul charged that 6,018 voter names were deleted in Aland in a systematic manner using software, adding the CEC was complicit in the deletion as he refused to provide crucial data and take any action despite repeated requests from the Karnataka CID. However, the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka claimed it had handed over all information required for the probe to the Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi district on Sept 6, 2023. In Delhi, the ECI said, “No deletion of any vote can be done online EXPRESS READ CM to inaugurate Global Ayyappa meet tomorrow Pathanamthitta: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the Global Ayyappa Sangamam at Pampa at 10 am on September 20. Devaswom Minister V N Vasavan will preside over the function. Ministers from various states, legislators, community and cultural leaders, and representatives of several organisations will attend the ayyappa meet. P4 by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi.” The fraud was exposed by chance when a booth-level officer discovered that her uncle’s vote had been deleted after a neighbour applied for the deletion of his vote, said Rahul. “However, the neighbour denied it. Some other force hijacked the process,” he added. Although the Karnataka CID sent 18 letters to ECI in a span of 18 months seeking destination IPs, device ports and OTP trails of the fake Form 7 applications, the poll body has not responded so far, he alleged. The deletions, he added, were at the top 10 booths where Congress holds strong influence and had won eight of them. Rahul said that an automated program chose the first name from each booth to delete votes, with mobile numbers from outside the state used to file fake applications.