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HYDERABAD: “Don’t want to finish last, also knocking a big side out of the tournament is an incentive,” Team Hyderabad skipper Kumar Sangakkara had said after the toss. After packing off Rajasthan on Friday, Hyderabad produced another spirited display to thwart Bangalore’s hopes of making it to the playoffs with a nine-run win at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, on Sunday evening.

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In the process, Hyderabad did Chennai a big favour as the defending champions clinched the last place in the playoffs by virtue of a better run-rate. Hyderabad too did themselves a big favour by pushing Pune down to the last spot in the points table.

Bangalore, who had to win this match to book their playoff spot, seemed to have done their homework quite well. And after the bowlers had put up a splendid show to restrict Hyderabad to 132 for seven, Chris Gayle came out all guns blazing. The West Indian hammered Manpreet Gony for three fours and two sixes in the second over of the innings and it looked as if the visitors would romp to an easy win.

However, Hyderabad spearhead Dale Steyn, who was taken to the cleaners by AB de Villiers in their earlier match, seemed to have different ideas. The South African produced a blistering spell of fast bowling to put Bangalore on the back foot.

The free-flowing Gayle met his match in the fiery Steyn. The speedster softened the West Indian with a superb bouncer. A flustered Gayle (27; 10b, 3×4, 2×6) made room to cut the next ball but only succeeded in chopping it onto his stumps. Steyn then had Tillakaratne Dilshan leg before and leggie Amit Mishra got into the act by sending back the dangerous AB de Villiers and Mayank Agarwal in the same over to put the brakes on Bangalore.

Saurabh Tiwary, who had retired hurt on 2 because of cramps when the score was 40/2, came back at the fall of Agarwal’s wicket and with skipper Virat Kohli steadied the innings. The duo stitched a 37-ball 46 for the fifth wicket to keep Bangalore in the game. However, Kohli (42; 40b, 2×4, 2×6) fell in the 16th over and that left the visitors 30 to win.

The Hyderabad bowlers didn’t choke under pressure this time as they dashed the visitors’ hopes as they finished with 123 for nine.

Earlier, Hyderabad, put into bat by Kohli, had a miserable start as Shikhar Dhawan, their top scorer this season, was cleaned up by a Zaheer Khan delivery in the first over of the game. Thereafter, nothing really went Hyderabad’s way as they lost two more wickets to be reduced to three for 20 in the fifth over.

It was a grind from thereon as Sangakkara and JP Duminy tried to rebuild the innings. The duo added 31 for the fourth wicket but the going was terribly slow. Sangakkara fell in the 12th over while trying to get some momentum as Bangalore literally chocked the rivals. However, the huge turn-out had something to cheer in the later part of the innings as Duminy took it upon himself to steer Hyderabad to a decent score.

The South African, who later took three catches on the field, took a heavy toll of Zaheer Khan and Muralitharan in the 17th and 18th overs, hitting four sixes and a four in those two overs.

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WASHINGTON: The United States is all too familiar with Nafta – the North Atlantic Free trade Agreement – but it is now learning the meaning of ‘hafta’, the subcontinental expression for protection money collected by gangsters.

On the eve of the Nato summit in President Barack Obama’s hometown Chicago to discuss the future of Afghanistan, Washington is locked in a bitter wrangle with Islamabad over the so-called ”transit fees” for US/Nato containers carrying supplies through Pakistan to landlocked Afghanistan. Pakistan is demanding $5000 per container; the US says it is too much and expressions such as price-gouging and blackmail are being bandied around.

The scrap is getting ugly. Over the weekend, even as Pakistan’s survivalist President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in Chicago as a late invitee, US defense secretary Leon Panetta stepped into the dispute raging in the lower level bureaucracy of both sides, ruling out the $ 5000 per container that Pakistan is demanding.

“Considering the financial challenges that we’re facing, that’s not likely,” Panetta told Los Angeles Times of the Pakistani demand.

The US was paying Pakistan $250 per contained till late last year before a rash of crises starting with the Raymond Davis episode and culminating with the Salala incident, with the Abbottabad raid to kill Osama bin Laden in between, brought the tormented ties between the two sides to a bitter pass. Pakistan has upped the ante and the price of cooperation since then, enhancing its reputation as a rentier state that uses self-generated crises to extract money. Islamabad’s argument purportedly is that $5000 per container is still less than what the US is having to spend on the alternative Northern Distribution Network.

In Washington, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman told CNN that Pakistan is looking at a ‘positive’ conversation about reopening of Nato supply routes but it will be pre-mature to say when the trucks will resume supply. She also maintained that Pakistan is still demanding an apology from Washington for the death of Pakistani soldiers in a U.S attack on the Salala checkpoint.

But the US has hardened its stance on the issue after much debate within the administration about an apology. According to one account, the Obama administration was on the verge of issuing an apology on several occasions but backed off each time in the face of Pakistani depredations, including one episode involving Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when it was aborted midflight. The prevailing sentiment in Washington is now veering around to: When will Pakistan apologize to the world for harboring terrorists who have attacked targets across the world?

The US is now reconciled to the issue not being resolved before or during the summit, and in yet another snub to Pakistan, it has declined to announce any bilateral meeting between President Obama and Zardari. “We’re not anticipating necessarily closing out those negotiations this weekend,” Obama aide Ben Rhodes said on Saturday, adding, “A lot of it is happening, frankly, at the working level between our governments.” The working level, as it turns outs, isn’t working very well.

The spat between the two sides is bound to get uglier. Last week, the US Congress approved an amendment to a bill under which Washington could block up to $650 million in proposed payments to Pakistan unless Islamabad lets coalition forces resume shipments. The vote was an overwhelming 412-1 in favor of the amendment, indicative of the mood in Congress. The US also has various other levers to bring Pakistan to heel, including squeezing bilateral and multilateral aid, which it has so far been reluctant to use.

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NEW DELHI: Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, which runs the largest number of madrasas across the country, has sought inheritance rights for Muslim women through amendment of existing laws.

“According to the law of our country, women are denied right to inheritance in agricultural land. This is against the law of Islamic inheritance. So, the existing law should be amended to ensure her rights,” JuH leader Mahmood Madani told TOI.

In Islam, women are treated as “more than equal”, he said. “However, in complete contrast to Islam, the women are being denied inheritance from her father and husband. It’s a blot on Muslim society that they are denying our women their right,” he added.

Asked if they would face opposition from the community, Madani said, “We will build up a movement through our network of mosques and madrasas to make people aware of women’s rights.”

Farida Khanum, professor at Jamia Millia Islamia, however, was not too optimistic, saying, “These are good as subjects of speech. I doubt if this can change a deep-rooted mindset.”

Indian Muslims give daughters dowry but deny her inheritance. “Sura Al Nisa chapter 4 verse 11 of the Quran speaks clearly about women’s right to inheritance. But to safeguard self-interest, this is conveniently ignored,” said Khanum.

JuH leaders also stressed on building educational institutions for girls. “Many Muslims don’t want to send their daughters to school, even if they can afford it, as schools or colleges are co-educational,” said Niaz Ahmed Farooqui, JuH working committee member.

However, there were hurdles for Muslims to set up schools. Drawing on personal experience, Madani said, “I had bought land for Rs 1.50 crore in Dehradun to build schools for girls and boys. The then Congress government did not allow me.”

He approached the high court and won the lawsuit in 2011. “Yet, I have not been allowed to begin work on that plot. If Jamiat, which opposed the two-nation theory and played a stellar role in the country’s freedom struggle, is harassed this way, you can well imagine the plight of common Muslims,” Madani said.

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NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the trove of documents alleging money laundering received from a former US-based attorney against Abhishek Verma, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought details of the escrow account of New York-based Ganton Limited, an alleged front company of Verma.

The US attorney, C Edmond Allen, had been asked to submit details of Ganton’s escrow account which he operated on behalf of Verma for several years.

Top government sources said details of the escrow account might throw fresh light on the sensational naval war room leak case that is still shrouded in mystery.

From Allen, CBI is keen to know that if in May (2005), $82,79,874 in the form of three securities each for 30 years were deposited in the escrow account. The CBI suspects that out the three securities, $20,000 was to be remitted to Atlas Telecom Services (www.atlastelecom.com) US, through Wachovia Securities Bank, New York.

In 2006, during investigation of the naval war room leak case, the CBI had stumbled upon certain transactions from LGT Bank, Liechtenstein.

Confirming the discreet probe after receiving letters from Allen, CBI director A P Singh said, “A DIG level officer has been given the task to seek more information from the US-based attorney.”

Sources said getting information of all the money received in the escrow account from different international banks and sent further to other accounts was crucial to trace the money trail in many cases in which Verma has figured in the past.

Investigation into the naval war room leak case had found that Verma was the in-charge of Altas Group of Industries in India (Atlas Defence and Atlas Telecom). A CBI chargesheet had claimed that Verma had received remittances to the tune of Rs 6.5 crore to bribe defence personnel to get details of various purchases to be made by the military. Verma resigned from the group after the naval war room case made headlines in June 2006.

The CBI investigation had revealed that Verma also controlled all bank accounts of the group in India. Apart from Verma, the CBI had alleged that former naval officer Kulbhushan Parashar, the vice-president of Atlas Defence Systems, was involved in bribing eight defence officials to collect sensitive information.

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