chennai l sunday l december 21, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 26 l late city EDITION Slain Bangladesh youth leader laid to rest amid tight security The funeral of Bangladesh youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi (pic) was held in Dhaka on Saturday, drawing large crowds amid extra-tight security mohd Yunus, army chief attend funeral 24-hour ultimatum to govt to arrest killers Bangladesh’s interim government head Muhammad Yunus and army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman attended the funeral of the leader of the radical right-wing cultural group ‘Inqilab Mancha’. A candidate in the February 12 general elections, Hadi was shot in the head by masked gunmen on December 12 and died while being treated in Singapore | p11 ■ ■ Tens of thousands attended the funeral procession. Hadi was buried at Dhaka University’s central mosque. Later, Inqilab Mancha issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Yunus-led government to arrest his killers He was waging a campaign demanding Hasina’s return to Bangladesh to face death penalty after a special tribunal sentenced her to death 32-year-old Hadi was an outspoken critic of India 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 gill dropped, ‘Maha jungle raj’ in kishan in for Bengal, says Modi new balance world cup Slams Congress in Guwahati for ‘defending infiltrators’ firoz mirza/gomesh s S U B HENDU MAITI & P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Kolkata/ Guwahati It was a story of two players. Ishan Kishan until Thursday was playing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy scoring runs for Jharkhand including a hundred in the final. Closer to the India team, Shubman Gill, who has had a forgettable T20I season, was the vice captain. Little did the two know that their fortunes would take different course on Saturday when the India team for the allimportant T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka was announced on Saturday . Kishan, who was out of favour for two years found his way back into the team. Of course, it was all because of his tremendous form in recent months. On the other hand, contrary to belief, newly-appointed captain of the Test and One-day teams, did not find a place in the 15 despite he being with the India set-up during the South Africa T20I series until Friday . If Kishan was a natural selection, there were murmurs about Gill’s exclusion. There were multiple indications that suggested Gill was not informed of the decision until Saturday. With pressure piling on Gill and captain Suryakumar Yadav for their lack of runs, team management seem to have decided to take the harsh decision for the World Cup. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar said that the call was taken to accommodate keeper-batter at the top-order. “At the end of the day you are look, ing to see what are the best combinations or different options that you can get as a Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, likening it to Bihar’s past lawlessness and calling it a “maha jungle raj”. Virtually addressing a gathering at Taherpur in Nadia district, one of the Matua-dominated belts in the state, over phone from the Kolkata airport as his helicopter could not land there due to dense fog, Modi hit out at the alleged corruption, nepotism and politics of appeasement by the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state. “Because of the state government’s cut-money and commission culture, people of Bengal are being deprived of development schemes worth thousands of crores,” he alleged. Positive development in the state can happen if the BJP gets to form a double-engine government. “Give us chance to do so,” he urged the gathering. Citing the recent elections in Bihar, he said the massive win @ Chennai e x p r ess r e a d CM inaugurates Porunai museum in Tirunelveli Tirunelveli: CM M K Stalin, who is on a two-day visit to the district, inaugurated the Porunai Museum, which features artefacts from excavation sites at Adichanallur, Sivagalai and Korkai, on Saturday. Addressing the event through a video message, Stalin said the museum, built at `56.36 crore, was the next step in documenting the Tamil civilisation | P4 WITH THIS ISSUE Go Goa Gone PLUS 12 P AGES He’s a terrific player. It’s just that the situation is such that we need a keeper to back up the order Captain Suryakumar Yadav on Gill squad to give you the best chance of doing well in the World Cup. Whether it is decided today, yesterday, one week earlier, it doesn’t really matter. Hopefully, we get it right come the World Cup,” Agarkar said in Mumbai. For Kishan, even he could be back up for Sanju, call-up comes as a timely boost. After being dropped rather unceremoniously in late 2023 when he asked for a break due to mental fatigue, Kishan lost the central contract before going back to domestic cricket. He learnt to remain patient and calm. “Before every match in the SMAT, we used to have a video chat. It was more about mental things. Before the tournament started, I told him that this is his chance to impress the selectors. He not only did that but forced them to include him in the team,” Kishan’s coach Uttam Mazumdar told this daily  . P13 of the BJP-led NDA in the state will open the road for victory of the BJP in Bengal in the coming assembly polls, adding, “Maha jungle raj will come to an end with formation of BJP government in the state.” In Guwahati, Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress for speaking up in defence of the “infiltrators” (illegal migrants) by criticising the EC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the new terminal building of Lokpriya Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport in Guwahati, he said the government was working to stop infiltration but the Congress and INDIA bloc openly adopt “anti-national agendas”. sitting ducks A dead elephant in Hojai district of Assam on Saturday. Seven elephants were killed by the Rajdhani Express | PTI Fire at Chennai BSNL office hits call services in TN & AP E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai A major fire broke out on the second floor of the seven-storey BSNL telephone exchange building on Anna Salai on Saturday, disrupting telecommunication services and affecting emergency helplines. While no casualties were reported, the incident hit communication and online services to the police control room (100), ambulance service (108) and Tangedco’s online payment portals, within a 2-km radius. A BSNL spokesperson said that the fire incident impacted mobile voice and data services in Chennai, the rest of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and affected calls to other operators and emergency services. Voice and data serv- Blaze was largely contained to the second floor | martin louis ices in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and the rest of Tamil Nadu have been restored, while services in Chennai have been partially restored and further work is under way, the spokesperson added. Services to the DGP’s office, the Greater Chennai police commissioner’s office and the Tangedco head office were also impacted, sources said.  P7 Fire incident hit mobile voice and data services in Chennai, the rest of TN, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana BSNL spokesperson Min says no vacancies, nurses continue stir s i n d u j a j a n e @ Chennai Hundreds of nurses working in government hospitals across Tamil Nadu continued their protest for the third day on Saturday in different districts, demanding the regularisation of jobs of around 8,000, who were recruited on a contractual basis by the Medical Services Recruitment Board (MRB) in 2015. The protests continued even as Health Minister Ma Subrama- nian claimed the nurses had withdrawn their protests after talks. He reiterated the state would regularise their employment when vacancies arise, but there were none at the moment. T h e nu r s e s, wh o started their protest in Chennai on Thursday, continued at the Kilambakkam bus terminus to which they had been shifted, and later moved to Urapakkam. On Sat- urday nurses in other districts , continued the stir. Subramanian said that while efforts were already under way to fill the 169 vacancies now, the jobs of other nurses will be regularised only when vacancies arise. However, the nurses said the state has been creating infrastructure without proportionate increase in posts, instead managing with temporary workers.  P7 ‘Forced to work for 32 hours’ In many PHCs, nurses are forced to work 32 hours at a stretch even though norms mandate only six hours, said one of the protesters Infiltrators are blessed by the TMC. The ruling party is opposing SIR to save the infiltrators. You (TMC) give go back slogans against the infiltrators not against me Narendra Modi Will serve Matuas, says PM “I assure every Matua and Namasudra family that we will always serve them. They are not here at the mercy of TMC,” PM Narendra Modi said Govt bulldozed MGNREGA, says Sonia Gandhi P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi ACCUSING the Modi Government of bulldozing the MGNREGA, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday asserted that the party will fight against the “black law” that seeks to repeal the job scheme. Both Houses of Parliament passed the VB–G Ram G Bill on Thursday that seeks to replace the two-decades-old MGNREGA. The Opposition has urged the government to send the new bill to a standing committee saying that it’s a “conditional, centrally controlled scheme stacked against states and workers”. In a video message, Sonia Gandhi said the Centre has altered the structure of MGNREGA without any con- Sonia Gandhi vowed to fight sultation, discussion against the ‘black law’ | PTI or taking the Opposition into confidence, and even removed Mahatma Gandhi’s name, undermining the spirit and intent of the landmark legislation. “Twenty years ago, I fought to secure the right to employment for the poor. Today too, I am fully committed to this struggle,” she said. She alleged that decisions on who will get employment, where and how, will now be taken centrally from Delhi, ignoring ground realities and weakening the role of the gram panchayats. By weakening MGNREGA, the Modi government had attacked the interests of millions of farmers, labourers, and landless people, she said.