The editorial Page: The voice of india’s youth must be heard inside Parliament 10 THURsdAY, JUlY 23, 2026 JourNaliSm of Courage AHMEdAbAd, LATE cITY, 22 pAGES ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com dA I LY f R o M : A H M E dA b A d , c H A N d I GA R H , d E L H I , j A I p U R , ko L k ATA , L U c k N o w , M U M b A I , N AG p U R , pAT N A , p U N E , vA d o dA R A seeKs no LegaL acTion againsT PRoTesTeRs, coMPensaTion FoR neeT asPiRanTs WHo ended LiVes Wangchuk opens a window for talks as Centre steps up efforts to resolve crisis PLeas againsT cRacKdoWn After Union Ministers meet him in hospital, activist says will ask students to halt protest if assurances kept PreserveccTV footage:Hcto police;cJisays don’thavetime towatchvideos Liz Mathew & Jatin anand New Delhi, July 22 As The government stepped up efforts to defuse the situationarisingoutofstudentprotests that have paralysed the heart of the Capital, a window opened Wednesday after activist sonam Wangchuk said he would end his fast and ask the students to “halt the movement for now and enter into a dialoguewiththegovernment” if it fulfils its assurances to him and does not press for legal action against the protesters. Wangchuk released a letter addressed to Union ministers J P nadda and Jitendra singh who met him Tuesday night at the medanta hospital in Gurgaon. Without insisting on the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, he said the ministers had assured him that the government would consider providing “adequate compensation for the families of the students who had committed suicide following the examination paper leak” and “a meaningfuldiscussioninParliament to ensure accountability »conTinued on Page 2 sohini ghosh & ananthakrishnan g New Delhi, July 22 activist sonam Wangchuk has been on a hunger strike since June 28. ANI fILE Business as usual By EP UNNY Protesters at sansad marg in new delhi on Wednesday. GAjENdRA YAdAv Govt offers discussion in House, Opp presses for Pradhan’s resignation Manoj cg New Delhi, July 22 full coverage pages 4, 12, 16 The GriDLOCK in Parliament showed no signs of ending on Wednesday as Opposition parties remained firm on their demand for the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan even as the government signalled that it was readytomeetthemhalfway,reiterating its willingness to hold an elaborate discussion in the house on the paper leak issue. The Opposition also reached out to activist sonam Wangchuk, who has been on a opposition mPs protest in Parliament, Wednesday. pTI hunger strike since June 28, and urged him to end his fast. While the Opposition is in- sisting on Pradhan’s resignation, sources said there is a »conTinued on Page 2 DeCLininG TO accept the Delhi Police argument that aggrieved protesters must individually pursue action against alleged brutalities and excessive use of force during the ‘Chalo sansad’ march on July 20,organisedbytheCockroach Janta Party, the Delhi high Court Wednesday agreed to hear two public interest litigations on the issue. “is it a case of some isolated individual incidents? Perhaps no. if it was an unlawful assemblyasyousay,subjecttofurther submissionsandrecords,there is a law on how to deal with it. There is a supreme Court judgment (that prescribes circumstances and extent of use of force by police). if these issues arebeingraisedinthisPiL,how can you say every individual should go and lodge an fir? if »conTinued on Page 2 a grieving family member of head constable ashiq hussain Qureshi during the wreath-laying ceremony in anantnag, Wednesday. ANI First terror attack in Valley since Pahalgam: Policeman on Yatra duty gunned down Bashaarat Masood Srinagar, July 22 in The first terror attack in Kashmir since the killing of tourists in Pahalgam last year, a policeman was shot dead in Anantnag Wednesday, triggering a massive search operation by security forces. head Constable Ashiq hussain Qureshi, a resident of Budgam in central Kashmir, who was posted with the irP and attached with the special Operations Group, was on Amarnath yatra duty. The annual pilgrimage is currently suspended because of inclement weather. Officials said Qureshi was shot from point blank range near Lal Chowk in Anantnag in south Kashmir on Wednesday afternoon. he succumbed to After surgery, protester injured in march speaks: ‘RAF man shot me... pellets hit me in the face’ Tabshir shams New Delhi, July 22 LyinG On a hospital bed in the heart of Delhi after surgery, 25-year-old irshad shaikh strugglestofindwordsforwhat happenedtohimonthechaotic afternoon of July 20. speaking to The Indian Express Wednesday from the enT ward of Lady hardinge hospital,shaikh,anmBAgraduate working in Gurgaon, was among the protesters who had joined the CJP’s “Chalo san- pTI fILE (left) irshad shaikh at lady hardinge hospital; with union minister J P nadda, Tuesday. sad” march that day when, he says, he was hit by “multiple pellets” fired by an “rAf man”. The rAf (rapid Action force), drawn from the CrPf, was on duty that day, along withtheDelhiPolice,tocontrol themassivecrowdofprotesters who were part of the Parliament march — a faceoff that quickly spiralled into clashes with the security personnel wielding lathis and teargas. On Wednesday morning, Delhi Police denied they used pellets. The CrPf did not respondtoarequestforcomment fromTheIndianExpress.When asked if shaikh had pellet injuries and about the nature of histreatment,DrhimaniAhluwalia, Director, Lady hardinge hospital, did not comment. »conTinued on Page 2 Happening Airline cabin crew member raped in today office cab in Hyderabad, driver held lRussian FoReign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Manila. lindia Face Zimbabwe in the first of the three-match T20I series in Harare. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com nikhila Henry & sukalp sharma Hyderabad,NewDelhi,July22 ThehyDerABADPolicehave arrested the driver of a cab service for the alleged rape and assault of an indiGo cabin crew member. A local court remanded the 23-year-old accused, errapoguPrashanthKumar,injudi- cial custody. The alleged incident occurred at 2.40 pm on July 20, when the woman boarded her officecabtoreachtherajivGandhiinternationalAirport,shamshabad, and start her shift. insteadoftakinghertotheairport, theaccusedallegedlytookherto an isolated place and raped her. indiGo said in a statement it was “aware of the matter and understand(s)thatitiscurrently under investigation by the relevant law enforcement agencies”. “We are fully cooperatingwiththeauthoritiesandremain committed to supporting them, as required. During this difficult time, we stand by our colleagueandareextendingour support to her and her family,” the airline’s spokesperson said. »conTinued on Page 2 l 500 roads shuT; daman GanGa, Par and auranGa rivers in sPaTe; hiGh alerT in suraT ciTy 1 dead, 1,600 shifted as heavy rain throws life out of gear in Surat, Valsad & Navsari Kamal saiyed Surat, July 22 A fishermAn died and at least19personswererescuedin Gujarat’sValsadonWednesday as heavy rain lashed the district, leading to flooding of the Daman Ganga, Par and Auranga rivers. neighbouring navsari and surat districts also recorded heavyrainfall, leadingtofloodlike situations. in surat city, Bhedwadandmithicreekswere flowingclosetothedangerlevel even as authorities issued a red alert for heavy rainfall. Over 500 panchayat roads have been closed due to floodinginValsad,suratandnavsari andover1,600peopleshiftedto Billimora in navsari district; 1,026 people people have been shifted to safe places in the district. ExpRESS safeplacesinthethreedistricts. Two additional teams of national Disaster response force (nDrf) and state Disaster responseforce(sDrf)havebeen deployed in the low-lying areas on the banks of surat creeks. The Kevdi dam in mandvi, surat district, was on high alert duetoheavyinflow.Ofthetotal evacuations to shelter homes, 300 were from surat, 1,026 fromnavsariand300fromValsad. Over 300 District Panchayat (DP) and Taluka Panchayat (TP) roads in Valsad, around 180 roads in navsari »conTinued on Page 2 IRDAI REGN No. 190 CIN: L66000MH1919G0I000526 ADVT. NO. NIA/26-27/03 Ahmedabad E. explained amid high alert for amarnath Yatra The terror attack comes at a time when security is on high alert for the Amarnath Yatra. A large number of police, paramilitary and Army personnel are deployed across the Union Territory. injuries while being taken to hospital, and was declared dead on arrival. Qureshi is survived by his wife and three children. hourslater,theJammuand KashmirPolicedetainedhundreds of “suspects” and alleged »conTinued on Page 2