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 ■ ■ VILLUPURAM l wednesday l december 31, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l CITY EDITION Assam STF arrests 11 for ties with Jamaat radicals ‘All were working under direct orders from Bangladesh groups’ As the year draws to a close, we take a deep dive into the events, stories, and faces that mattered 05 express news service @ Guwahati tamil nadu vellore Wednesday 31 12 2025 l l Khaki with recognition W hen s senthil Kumar got a chance to interact with forest department staff during the national Forest Martyrs Day event at Tamil nadu Forest Academy (TnFA), the staff highlighted their plight of not being recognised as police staff, though they work for the welfare of wild animals, mitigating animal-human conflict, in khaki uniforms. They highlighted poor uniform allowance — `2,800 annually compared to `4,500 for police personnel. TnIe’s report on June 27 prompted senior officials to act, leading to a government order hiking the allowance to `4,500 and doubling compensation for kin of forest staff who die on duty from `10 lakh to `20 lakh scan Qr code to read report scan Qr code to read report i m pac t Matter Of Fact As the yeAr drAws to A close, tNIe recAlls some of the reports thAt forced correctIve steps. the outcomes speAk for themselves Allowance for kids of hooch victims T he 2024 Kallakurichi hooch tragedy claimed 69 lives, leaving 38 children orphaned or semi-orphaned. Krithika srinivasan revisited the families a year later, on June 22, only to learn that the 38 children had not received the cash assistance promised by the government. hours after TnIe flagged the issue, the pending amounts, including arrears, were credited to the children’s bank accounts. The government had announced a montly allowance of `5,000 each for four children and `4,000 each for 34 others Marksheets issued just in time scan Qr code to read report T he Museum Cafe, a unique and fully accessible restaurantcum-vocational training centre, run for persons with disabilities (PwDs) atop the Museum of Possibilities on the Lady Willingdon College campus in Mylapore, was being shut down by the Commissionerate for the Welfare of the Differently-Abled, reportedly to convert the premises into office space. Following subashini vijayakumar’s extensive coverage on november 25, protests and backlash on social media, the Commissionerate withdrew its order and announced that the cafe will continue to function at its present location D urIng n dhamotharan's visit to the government College of education for Women in Coimbatore on July 10, the 2022–24 batch students said they had not received consolidated marksheets or provisional certificates even a year after graduating, preventing them from applying for TrB teacher posts in government schools. Citing delays in printing marksheets for 60,000 students, Tamil nadu Teachers education university (TnTeu) officials said that the university had to issue marksheets for about 60,000 students and the printing of the marksheets had not yet begun. TnIe reported the issue and took it up with the higher education department. As per a senior officer’s order, the printing of the marksheets was started immediately, and the marksheets were issued from July 21 to colleges. The graduates were hence able to apply for the TrB examination Inquiry into abuse complaints A Cafe gets new lease of life FTer sinduja Jane’s report on May 19 on the inaction over sexual harassment complaints against the hOD of the Pathology Department at government Dental College, Chennai, the health department constituted an inquiry committee to look into the allegations and suspended the accused. A probe is currently under way Crackdown on child marriage hotspots Matter of fact: Where outcomes speak | P5 A scan Qr code to read report ELEVEN people were arrested in Assam and Tripura for their alleged links with Bangladeshbased fundamentalist groups that were aiming to destabilise the Northeast, police said on Tuesday . Assam’s Special Task Force said the arrests were made for alleged links with Imam Mahmuder Kafila (IMK), an offshoot of Bangladeshi terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which is banned in India. Ten among those arrested were nabbed from Assam’s Baksa, Barpeta, Chirang and Darrang districts while one was arrested from Tripura’s West Tripura district on December 29 and 30. The IMK was founded in 2018 by Jewel Mahmud alias Sohail, a former JMB member. The STF dossier said senior leaders of JMB, Ansarullah Bangla scan Qr code to read report scan Qr code to read report health department employee informed sivaguru s about a few cases of pregnancy in Kelamangalam and Thally blocks of Krishnagiri that they were unable to register in the Pregnancy and Infant Cohort Monitoring and evaluation (PICMe) portal. An enquiry by TnIe revealed six teenage pregnancies that could not be registered on the PICMe portal due to altered dates of birth in Aadhaar cards. Two browsing centres and a photo studio, charging `500 a pop, were involved in fudging Aadhaar data. Following TnIe’s coverage on June 18, the Krishnagiri collector ordered FIrs against the browsing centre and the photo studio. he also directed officials to register cases against those involved in such child marriage cases On the ground: Tales that left a mark | P6 Nation Migration, mobility and elections| P9 Federalism at crossroads | P10 business Top trends that shaped the economy | P12 Sports How the year panned out for India in sports | P13-14 Nasim Uddin, the kingpin, and Junab Ali Another Hindu man killed in Mymensingh A Hindu security guard, Bajendra Biswas, was fatally shot at a garment factory in Mymensingh on Monday, marking the third such incident targeting minorities in the country in two weeks Team (ABT), and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) had issued directions to IMK leadership to activate its Indian modules. Bangladeshi nationals Umar and Khalid were assigned to coordinate Assam-based activities. One Nasim Uddin alias Tamim of Assam’s Barpeta Road is the head of the outfit’s Assam cell. After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh in August last year, cadres of JMB, ABT and AQIS were activated, resulting in revival of their ideological influence and Indian networks, including through IMK-linked platforms, the STF said. “These elements were working under the direct orders from Bangladesh-based groups. Their main aim was to destabilise Assam and the rest of the Northeast,” STF chief Partha Sarathi Mahanta said. Those arrested from Assam were identified as Nasim Uddin alias Tamim (24), Junab Ali (38), Afrahim Hussain (24), Mizanur Rehman (46), Sultan Mehmud (40), Md Siddique Ali (46), Rasidul Aalam (28), Mahibul Khan (25), Sharuk Hussain (22) and Md Dilbar Razak (26), he added. Jagir Miah (33) was nabbed from Tripura. Khaleda Zia: 15 Aug 1945 – 30 Dec 2025 the reluctant politician who shaped B’desh Jaishankar to attend funeral Reflecting the importance New Delhi attaches to Khaleda Zia’s legacy, foreign minister S Jaishankar will represent India at her funeral. He will travel to Dhaka on Wednesday Pushed education reforms Khaleda Zia’s tenure as PM restored the parliamentary system and introduced compulsory, free primary education J AYAN T H J ACO B @ New Delhi K haleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister, died in Dhaka on Tuesday at the age of 80. For more than three decades, her fierce rivalry with Sheikh Hasina shaped Bangladesh’s politics, dividing the nation between two dominant leaders whose personal animosity often mirrored the country’s deeper political fault lines. Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid rich tributes to Khaleda Zia, recalling her contribution to strengthening bilateral ties. Born on August 15, 1945 in Dinajpur, then part of British India, Zia entered public life reluctantly At 15, she married Ziaur Rah. man, who would go on to become a central figure in Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation struggle and become President in 1977. His assassination in 1981 pushed Zia into politics. During the nine-year military dictatorship that followed a 1982 coup, she emerged as a prominent face of resistance, boycotting army-backed elections and enduring repeated house arrests. Her uncompromising stance earned her a loyal following. Following the fall of military rule in 1990, the BNP won the general election, and Khaleda Zia was sworn in as PM in 1991, one of the few elected women in the Muslim world. ‘Fake’ wrestling coach forges federation letter for US visa F i r o z M i r z a @ Chennai A bizarre query that could be linked with kabootarbaazi (immigration racket) left Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) stunned on Tuesday The Con. sular Section of the US Embassy, New Delhi asked the federation about a wrestling coach who has claimed WFI’s backing for attending a training camp from January 10 to 28 at Mat Sense Academy (Oregon). According to the document submitted in the US Embassy , Sandeep, son of Bijender Singh, sought the USA visa and submitted WFI’s sponsorship on its letterhead as a sup- porting document. The letter signed by RK Purushotham, WFI’s joint secretary, claimed that the federation will bear Sandeep’s travel expenses, accommodation and camp fees apart from providing him a daily allowance. Sandeep claimed that he is a wrestling coach at the Sports Authority of India. The sponsorship and official authorisation letter also mentioned three names — Sunil (coach), Anshu (wrestler) and Rajan (physiotherapist) — apart from Sandeep. “We have informed the US Embassy that the person is neither empanelled as a coach with WFI or the world body, United World Wrestling,” WFI chief Sanjay Kumar Singh said. “...as per WFI regulations, only the President, Secretary General, and the Administrative Of ficers are authorised to sign official correspondence on behalf of the Federation,” WFI told the US Embassy in their reply . e x p r e ss r e a d Tiruttani assault: Oppn blames poor law & order Chennai: As the brutal assault of an Odisha youth on a ChennaiTiruttani EMU train allegedly by four teenagers from TN sparked widespread condemnation, many political parties, including TVK and CPM, have blamed the incident on the deteriorating law & order situation in the state | P4 Courts can’t permit illegal detention even for 1 hr: HC Chennai: The Madras HC has stated that constitutional courts cannot permit illegal detention of any person even for an hour as it affects the right to liberty ensured in the Constitution. It also asked the state to show ‘restraint’ while exercising the powers to invoke Goondas Act for detention | P4 Pension scheme panel submits report to CM Chennai: Amid the JACTO-GEO protests seeking the restoration of Old Pension Scheme, the panel led by Additional Chief Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi formed to study the existing pension schemes, submitted its report to CM MK Stalin on Tuesday | P4