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 ■ ■ BHUBANESWAR l wednesday l december 31, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l LATE CITY EDITION As the year draws to a close, we take a deep dive into the events, stories, and faces that mattered local Investor confidence in Odisha surged | P4 BJP consolidates base, BJD in decline| P4 Nation Migration, mobility and elections| P7 Federalism at crossroads | P9 business Top trends that shaped the economy | P12 Sports How the year panned out for India in sports | P13-14 Assam STF arrests 11 for ties with Jamaat radicals ‘All were working under direct orders from Bangladesh groups’ express news service @ Guwahati 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 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 Zia was sworn in as PM in 1991, becoming 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 the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) stunned on Tuesday. The consular section of the US Embassy in 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 US visa and submitted WFI’s sponsorship on its letterhead as a support- ing document. The letter signed by R K 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 its reply . express read Majhi says no to New Year celebrations Bhubaneswar: In a clear departure from convention and practice in administration, CM Mohan Charan Majhi has issued instructions that no New Year celebration or social gatherings should be organised within the premises of any govt office | P3 Vig raids addl tehsildar, finds `72 lakh in cash Cuttack: Vigilance on Tuesday raided four locations linked to additional tehsildar of Cuttack’s Barang, Jitendra Kumar Panda over allegation of possession of disproportionate assets, and unearthed movable and immovable property worth crores of rupees | P3 Illegal hoardings flood city as BMC turns blind Bhubaneswar: The beautiful city of Bhubaneswar has been reduced to an ugly sprawl of hoardings, posters and banners, etc., with brazen takeover of public spaces by leaders, workers and even paltry and insignificant elements of different political parties ahead of the New Year | P2