Guwahati, Nov 26: South Africa strengthened their grip to win the second Test as off-spinner Simon Harmer struck thrice, leaving India reeling at 90/5 in 47 overs at tea on day five’s play at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Chasing a historic 2-0 series sweep, South Africa took three wickets in the session and now sit just five away from victory with two sessions remaining. B Sai Sudharsan has faced 138 balls for 14 runs and has been engaging in a blockathon.

Ravindra Jadeja (23 not out) has also contributed to a fightback against the Proteas, but India’s chances of survival remain slim in terms of saving the game. However, the session belonged to South Africa and Harmer, who delivered a masterclass in flight, guile, and subtle variations to become the leading wicket-taker in the series.

In the morning, Sudharsan was dismissed by Marco Jansen but narrowly escaped when replays showed the fast bowler had overstepped, while Kuldeep Yadav had a reprieve when Aiden Markram dropped his catch at first slip.

Kuldeep’s nightwatchman duty ended at five when Harmer’s straighter delivery went through the gate to rattle the middle-stump. Three balls later, Harmer took another wicket when Dhruv Jurel looked to defend but got an outside edge and was caught by slip for two.

Rishabh Pant briefly lifted the hosts with his counterattack – hammering Keshav Maharaj for four, before dancing down the pitch to launch him for a towering six. But in an attempt to defend a slower delivery from Harmer, Pant was dismissed for 13 when extra bounce on the ball took the shoulder edge of the bat and lobbed to slip.

Harmer could have taken his fourth wicket if Markram hadn’t dropped a difficult catch of Sudharsan, who went on to be the third Indian batter to face over a hundred balls in this series, as another session dominated by South Africa drew to a close.

Brief Scores: South Africa 489 and 260/5d in 78.3 overs (Tristan Stubbs 94; Ravindra Jadeja 4/62) lead India 201 and 90/5 in 47 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 23 not out, B Sai Sudharsan 14 not out; Simon Harmer 4-23, Marco Jansen 1-16) by 459 runs

Mumbai: A 21-year-old collegian suffered burn injuries after his friend set him ablaze during his birthday revelry in Kurla area of Mumbai on Tuesday, leading to the arrest of five of his friends, police said.

A friend of Abdul Rehman Khan called him up in the morning and asked him to come down to meet them. When Khan arrived at the spot, his five friends made him cut a cake and threw eggs and stones at him.

One of them, identified as Ayaz Malik, brought a bottle of petrol he had kept in his scooter and poured it on Khan. Despite protests by Khan, Malik started a fire using a lighter, police said.

Khan ran towards the watchman’s cabin and asked him to pour water on him. He was rushed to a hospital, where he is undergoing treatment for burn injuries he received on his face, hands, and chest.

Based on Khan’s complaint, police registered an FIR under section 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.

All five individuals, including the main accused Ayaz Malik, Ashraf Malik, Kasim Chowdhary, Huzaifa Khan, and Sharif Shaikh, have been arrested and remanded in police custody.

Mumbai, Nov 25: It’s 17 long years since Pakistani Ajmal Kasab and his terrorist accomplices executed a bloodbath in Mumbai, killing 175 persons and injuring 300 others. There was no mistaking that it was an operation masterminded by the ‘S’ branch of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which wanted to spread its vicious war away from the Kashmir theatre.

The 69-page dossier compiled by the Indian security establishment gives massive proof of the ISI’s active role through its proxy, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which in turn was closely aligned with the Al Qaeda of Osama Bin Laden.

British investigative journalists Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy aver in their book The Exile that “In 2008, according to two former aides to the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed, Osama had travelled to Manshera (a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) to attend an extraordinary meeting for the Mumbai operation of November 26, 2008… It had been facilitated by Lashkar, overseen by the ISI’s S-wing and sponsored by Al Qaeda.”

Apparently, documents post the U.S. commando operation against Osama revealed that Hafiz Saeed had been in close touch with Osama almost till the latter’s death.

On August 3, 2015, former chief of the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tariq Khosa admitted in an op-ed piece in Karachi’s Dawn newspaper that the ten terrorists had been members of the Lashkar and that there was forensic evidence that they had received training in a camp situated in Sindh province.

He further revealed that the control room in Karachi from where the Lashkar directed the Mumbai operation and the ship which transported the killers to Mumbai had been seized.

However, till date Pakistan has not taken any substantial action against the Lashkar and its handlers Major Iqbal and Sajid Majeed and others who are described by Islamabad as “non-state actors” but who are very much trained, sponsored and deputed to execute the diabolic attack on 26/11.

This brings us to the question of whether the extremely well-planned operation could have been executed by Kasab and Co without support from within Mumbai. This angle, sadly, has not been explored to the fullest extent. Sources said the Dawood Ibrahim gang, which had played an active role in the 1993 serial bombing of Mumbai, worked in close tandem with the Lashkar in executing the 2008 operation.

Dawood Ibrahim’s men, who are active in the docks conducting smuggling of narcotics, diesel and other items, had guided Kasab and his associates in avoiding Indian Coast Guard ships patrolling the coast off Mumbai and landing at a precise point in the fishermen’s colony in front of Badhwar Park in Colaba. And from then on, local operatives led the terrorists to Café Leopold, Chabad House, The Taj, CST railway station and other targets.

The ease with which the terrorists were able to attack multiple targets revealed that they had received extensive local help. It is true that David Headley, an American accomplice, had conducted extensive recce of the targets. But that alone would not have been sufficient to execute the violent operation on the bloody night of 26/11.