hyderabad l sunday l november 17, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l late city EDITION india’s hockey hub, Odisha, finally wins National title After investing in infrastructure, promotion, including sponsoring both men & women’s national teams, the state has emerged on top dominating five-goal fest for winners In the final on Saturday, Odisha defeated Haryana 5-1 to win the title at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai. For Odisha, Rajat Akash Tirkey scored the first goal in the first quarter before Pratap Lakra doubled the lead in the 39th minute. In the fourth quarter, Shilanand Lakra scored three goals to seal the title ■ 1st most players from sundargarh nursery ■ ■ At least 12 players were from the cradle of Indian hockey in the team. Coach Bijay Lakra said some of them grew up playing together. This was Haryana’s 3rd consecutive final appearance (2022 winners) Earlier in the day, Lalit Upadhyay and Rajkumar Pal helped Uttar Pradesh beat Manipur to finish third in the competition I P11 This is the first-ever senior national title for Odisha 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 Imphal valley on boil, mob storms houses of ministers Speculation rife on some BJP MLAs submitting resignation today LIft AFSPA from six areas, says govt P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati Five Maoists shot dead in Chhattisgarh E J AZ KAISER @ Raipur Five cadres of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), including two women fighters in uniform, were gunned down by security forces in an encounter on Saturday in the north Abujhmad area located along the edgy inter-district borders of NarayanpurKanker in Chhattisgarh. Two jawans — Heerman Yadav and Khileshwar Gawde — sustained bullet injuries in the gunfight and were shifted to a hospital where they were said to be stable and out of danger. “Based on an intelligence input about the presence of Maoists in the north Abujhmad (meaning unfamiliar land) region, a joint team of District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and Border Security Force (BSF) left on the planned operation during the intervening night of 1516 November. As the search campaign moved ahead, an encounter began around 8 am after the Maoists opened fire on the forces that came close to their hideout location. So far, five bodies of Maoists have been recovered from the encounter site,” said a police officer. WITH THIS ISSUE Feeling at Home PLUS 12 PAGES Massive protests broke out in Manipur’s Imphal valley on Saturday after the bodies of six persons, believed to be of those reported missing from Jiribam district on Monday were recov, ered from a river close to the border of Assam’s Cachar and Manipur’s Jiribam districts. Miscreants also vandalised and burned down five churches and six houses in Jiribam on Saturday evening, the Indigenous Tribal Advocacy Committee claimed. In the wake of widespread protests, the state government temporarily suspended internet and mobile data services in the affected districts. The protesters attacked the houses of several MLAs and damaged properties at some places. They also stormed the houses of two BJP ministers. Vehicles were also set on fire. One of the MLAs, whose house was targeted, was R K Imo, who is the son-in-law of Chief Minister N Biren Singh. As the protesters are going for the jugular of the elected members for failing to control Massive protests were held on Saturday in Imphal after six bodies were found The Manipur government has written to the Centre requesting it to review its Nov 14 notification imposing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in six jurisdictions in the Imphal valley. The state cabinet discussed it at a meeting late Friday night and decided to request the Centre to review and withdraw the said declaration No reason was cited the escalating violence, speculations are rife that some of the BJP’s legislators could resign on Sunday . The influential Meitei organisation ‘Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity’ announced a civil disobedience movement from Saturday . The bodies of all six persons were taken to the nearby Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) in Assam’s Cachar district for post-mortem. Three of the bodies were recovered on Friday and the others on Saturday The state govern. ment in a statement issued earlier in the day confirmed that three of the bodies were of the missing persons. Three women and three children went missing from Jiribam following Monday’s gunfight in which CRPF and police personnel had gunned down 10 “militants”. Kuki-Zo organisations claimed they were “village volunteers”. Tension had been building across the Imphal valley since Friday night following reports about the recovery of three bodies. The protests intensified later in the day on Saturday when reports emerged about the recovery of three more bodies. SAD presidentship Constrained by Takht, Badal calls it quits H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Embattled Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday submitted his resignation, drawing the curtain over two decades of dynastic rule in the second oldest political party in the country . His position in the party had become untenable after the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, declared him a tankhayia (guilty of religious misconduct) twoand-a-half months ago but did not announce his sentence and barred him from any political activity . Ever since his father Parkash Singh Badal became party president in 1995, it became a Badal family pocket borough, with the baton of presidentship being passed to Sukhbir in 2008. On August 29, Sukhbir had appointed senior party leader Balwinder Singh Bhundar as the SAD working president. SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said Bhunder has convened an emergency meeting of the SAD Working Committee on Monday at the party’s headquarters here to consider Sukhbir’s resignation and chart out the next course of action, including initiating the process to elect his successor. The last organisational elections within the party was held on December 14, 2019. Sukhbir had recently suffered a fracture on his right foot and underwent a corrective surgery at the PGI in Chandigarh. His resignation comes three days after he approached the Akal Takht with a fresh appeal to Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh (High Priest) to convene a meeting of the clergy soon to p ro n o u n c e h i s re l i g i o u s punishment. On August 30, Sukbir was declared tankhaiya for the mistakes committed by his party’s government from 2007 to 2017 when he was deputy chief minister and SAD president. Express Re a d Tapgate: ex-MLA quizzed Hyderabad: The police on Saturday questioned former BRS MLA G Jaipal Yadav as part of the probe into allegations of illegal phonetapping during BRS rule | P4 PM begins 5-day foreign visit New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has embarked on a five-day visit to Nigeria, Brazil and Guyana. During the course of his visit, he will attend the G20 Summit in Brazil | P7 Four medicos suspended for ragging Tamil actor Kasthuri arrested in city for remarks on Telugus ENS @ Nalgonda Actor Kasthuri Shankar was arrested by a special team of the Tamil Nadu police on Saturday in Narsingi police station limits here for her alleged remarks against Telugu people during an event in Chennai last month. A top Cyberabad police official confirmed to TNIE that the actor was arrested in the city by cops from Tamil Nadu. TN police sources said that she had been evading arrest by taking refuge at a friend’s house in Hyderabad. The actor would now be brought to Chennai and produced before a magistrate court, they added. On Friday the Madurai Bench of the , Madras HC dismissed an anticipatory bail petition filed by Kasthuri in a case Four students of the Nalgonda Government Medical College have been suspended for ragging their juniors. The alleged ragging incident took place on November 12. The suspension decision was taken by the college after an inquiry was conducted into the ragging incident. According to officials, two students in their fourth year of MBBS have been suspended for six months, one for one month and another medico in his first year for three months. This is the first reported incident of ragging in the college. E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Hyderabad/Chennai registered against her by the Madurai Thirunagar police over her remarks. Justice N Anand Venkatesh, who passed the order, said, “The petitioner’s speech clearly hovers around hate speech. In a diverse country like ours, there must be zero tolerance whenever such speech is made by demeaning a particular group of people based on their language.” Kasthuri has acted in more than 15 films in the Telugu industry, including the widely acclaimed Annamayya. After the outcry over her remarks at an event in Chennai last month, she claimed that her opinions were specific to certain individuals and not directed at the broader Telugu community She . alleged the controversy was being twisted by the DMK ecosystem into a panTelugu issue. continued on P5 Friday speech to be vetted: Waqf Board Union minister G Kishan Reddy interacts with residents of Tulsiramnagar on the banks of the Musi River before spending the night in the area on Saturday E J AZ KAISER @ Raipur In what is decidedly the first such directive anywhere in the country the Chhattisgarh State , Waqf Board in the BJP-ruled state issued a circular to the Mutawallis (caretakers) of all mosques asking them to get the sermons they deliver every Friday afternoon before the prayer vetted by it. “There should not be any political colour in the speeches given ahead of the Jumma namaz every Friday At times, . fatwas are issued from the mosques or support is extended to some political party Mosques . should confine themselves to religious preaching or practices and not become a siyasi adda (political nest). So, I have instructed all Mutawallis to apprise the Waqf Board regarding the contents of their sermons and get our consent,” Chhattisgarh Waqf Board chairman Salim Raj told this newspaper on Saturday . He contended that he has not overste pped his brief, as mosques and dargahs fall within the ambit of the Waqf Board. Raj said imams have also been asked to create awareness regarding the government’s welfare schemes, especially those meant for the minorities. Ready to face bulldozers for sake of Musi victims: Kishan b K a r t h e e k @ Hyderabad Union Minister for Coal and Mines and BJP state president G Kishan Reddy on Saturday said that he was ready to be run over by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s bulldozers if it ensured the welfare of residents of slums near the Musi river. H e w a s re s p o n d i n g t o Revanth’s warning that he would drive bulldozers over those who opposed the Musi rejuvenation project. Kishan and several other BJP leaders embarked on Musi Nidra (sleeping on the banks of Musi) in response to Revanth’s challenge to opposition party leaders to spend a few nights on the banks of the river unaffected by the stink that rises from the polluted water. What is the objective of Musi beautification? How would the project be? From where would you get funds? Does it really need `1.5 lakh crore? G Kishan Reddy, Union minister The BJP leaders maintained that they were not against river rejuvenation but only the displacement of the Musi dwellers. As part of Musi Nidra, Kishan Reddy spent the night at Tulsiramnagar in Amberpet Assembly constituency . Speaking on the occasion, the Union minister questioned the very objectives, source of funding, and modalities of the Musi rejuvenation project.  continued on P4