The ideas Page: Washington’s russia pivot is geopolitical shift, carries message for india-us deal 9 MONdAY, OCTOBER 19, 2026 JournalisM of Courage new DelHI, laTe CITy, 18 paGeS ₹7.00 (₹8 RaIpuR, ₹15 SRInaGaR) 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 happening today lDefence Minister Rajnath Singh will represent India at the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation at Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Kolkata stampede: Ropes dropped, one exit, warnings that led to panic Seven arrested, death toll climbs to 19, CM Adhikari says security lapses will be probed; 2 of 25 injured still in ICU Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com Amongvictims: father-sonduo frombihar, friendsfrom childhood Driver AnD bystAnDer inJUreD; 15 POlice teAMs fOrMeD Actor Tiger Shroff escapes unhurt after 5 rounds fired at car sweety kumari Kolkata, October 18 ‘Rules and regulations exist. We need an executive instrument to take them to stakeholders and implement them’ tUkArAM MUnDhe maHaRaSHTRa FDa COmmISSIOneR page 15 Business as usual By EP UNNY a victim’s relative breaks down outside kolkata Police morgue, sunday. paRTHa paul ravik bhattacharya & sweety kumari Kolkata, October 18 inshiftoneclaw, formercMJagan saysbacking nDAwaswrong, processskewed nikhila henry Hyderabad, October 18 in A significant shift in his political positioning, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president and former Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinisterYSJaganMohan Reddy said Sunday that his party“waswronginsupporting the ndA government” on the Bill regarding the appointment of election commissioners. “We regret it now… We have realised that it was wrong on ourparttoallowaselectionprocess where the election commissionerisselectedbyathreemember panel comprising the Prime Minister, a minister chosen by the PM and the leader of Opposition,” he said at a press conference, arguing that the current arrangement had skewed the composition of »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2 OnlY One exit, narrow lanes, inexperienced volunteers, rain and ill-timed announcements byorganisers:itwasthispotent mixofsecuritygapsthatculminated in the stampede that led to 19 deaths at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin durga Puja in Kolkata, The Indian Express has learnt. So far, seven people have been arrested and charged The ediTorial page In KolKata tragedy, a dIffIcult recKonIng page 8 underBnSsections105and110, related to culpable homicide, andsection3(5)oncommonintent, which aims to hold all coaccused equally liable. those arrested include Raj Kumar Sewda (48), secretary of the puja committee, and Santanu Mahender singh Manral in APRil this year, two neetUg aspirants were sitting at a teashopoutsidetheir coaching centreinPune,discussingtheir apprehensions over the exam, when the shop’s owner approached them. Hetoldthemthatafriendof his, a “doctor”, could get the dubey (55), its vice-president. All the accused have been sent to policecustody for 10days. Of the 25 injured, two are in iCU, officials said. located in north Kolkata neartheBurrabazararea,Chorbagan Sarbojanin, like most durga Pujas in the area, is surrounded by narrow lanes and bylanes. Over the past three days, police sources said, the puja saw a huge rush of people, with police barricades breached at least 10 times on »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2 »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2 express special Sahil Wakode suicide: One month down, IIT-B cabinet secretariat flags protest site demolished delay in pulse research Pallavi smart scheme, agri ministry says ‘expediting’ it Mumbai, October 18 A MOntH after iit Bombay student Sahil Wakode died by suicide, his parents and protesting students were detained by the Mumbai Police Sunday andtheinstitute’smainprotest site, near the gate, where students had been staging a sit-in for four weeks, was cleared out and demolished. Sahil’s parents, Ravindra and Sonali Wakode, arrived on campus to pay homage to their son,whodiedonSeptember18. activists being detained during the protest outside iiT Bombay, sunday. anuRaG aHIRe Ravindra also submitted a letter to the institute’s registrar. »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2 Chai & a plate of NEET questions: CBI chargesheets tea stall owner in Pune New Delhi, October 18 exPlained, page 13 A MAn from Bihar and his seven-year-old son, two best friends in their teens, a promisingyoungswimmersettoleave for a holiday the next morning, and a nurse at a cancer hospital whohadcomestraightafterher shift: these were among the 19 people killed in stampede at Kolkata’s Chorbagan Sarbojanin puja pandal Saturday. Abhishek Srivastava, 38, was a medical representative basedinMuzaffarpur.Sincehis wife is from Kolkata, he had longbeenwanting to seedurga Puja in the city, said one of his relatives.OnSaturdayevening, he left for the pandal with his wife, son Ayansh andtwo other relatives. “He was so happy to see the puja craze in Bengal,” said the relative. His nephew Akanshu Kumar said, “My father (who was accompanying Abhishek) told me that they were walking towards the exit when chaos brokeout.inthemelee,Ayansh felldownandpeoplekeptwalking on him. in order to pull him out, Abhishek stayed back and also fell down. the crowd continued walking on the two of them...” Akanshu’s father Rajesh is question paper for them, but it would cost Rs 4.5 lakh. Sheshrao Bajrang Suryavanshi, owner of the tea stall MalakChah,isthe14thaccused arrested in the neet-Ug 2026 question paper leak case. the CBi chargesheeted him earlier this week for his alleged links with Shubham Khairnar, a careercounsellorarrestedin nashik, Maharashtra, in May. Su- ryavanshi was arrested on September 2 by the CBi and sent to judicial custody after his threeday remand with the probe agency ended. duringtheinvestigation,CBi found that Suryavanshi took at least 10 students to a house in Panchak village in nashik and collected all their original documents and educational »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2 1 year of six-year Pulses Mission over; Rs 500 cr allocation for research unused harikishan sharma New Delhi, October 18 tHe fiRSt year of the six-year Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses(2025-26to2030-31)isalreadyoverandnoresearchproject has yet been approved against the allocation of Rs 500 crore.theAgricultureMinistry, on Sunday, vowed to expedite the process. flaggingthedelay,theCabinet Secretariat had asked the Ministry of Agriculture and farmers’ Welfare to complete the approval processes for research projects by november 15.OnSunday,theministrysaid that it is “expediting the process, and eligible projects rec- bOllywOOD_buzz70/InSTaGRam a videograb of alleged shooters (circled) opening fire at actor Tiger shroff’s car in mumbai, sunday. Shooters waited outside park where Tiger was playing football, fired & fled on motorcycle Manish kumar Pathak Mumbai, October 18 Unidentified gUnMen fired five rounds at Bollywood actor tiger Shroff near Pushpa narsee Park in Vile Parle on Sunday evening, injuring his driver and a bystander. Shroff escaped unhurt, and the assailants fled on a motorcycle. thefiring,which tookplace barely 100 metres from Juhu police station, has prompted Mumbai Police to form 15 teams to identify and trace the shooters. investigators suspect the assailants may have conducted a recce of the actor's movements, as he reportedly visits the park every Sunday to play football for around two hours. »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2 more reports, page 10 Forensic experts collect samples from the spot. SankHaDeep baneRjee ‘First and last warning’: US-based gangster with Bishnoi link claims attack Mahender singh Manral New Delhi, October 18 Anil PAndit, a US-based gangsterwholeftindiaillegally two years ago, has claimed responsibility for the firing that targeted Bollywood actor tiger Shroff in Mumbai’s Juhu area on Sunday evening, according to a purported audio clip re- explained pulse production needed a boost India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world. However, the country’s production is not sufficient to meet its annual demand. Against this backdrop, the government launched the Pulses Mission last year. While other components of the mission have taken off, research projects are yet to hit the ground. ommended by the Committee are expected to be sanctioned by the end of October 2026, aheadofthenovember15timeline referred.” At a meeting on October 5 chaired by Cabinet Secretary dr t V Somanathan, while reviewing the reorientation of »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2 l Two world Junior medals in Two ediTions, 10 medals aT norTh Zone, 20 new academies in Five years Medals, academies, courts and eager parents are bringing Punjab back in badminton spotlight shivani naik nees have been added across the state, inspired by her silver from World Juniors in 2025. lfOR tWO consecutive edilforthefirsttimeinthehistions of the Badminton World tory of north Zone Badminton Junior Championships now, Championships this year, 10 shuttlers from Punjab, tanvi Punjab players ended with Sharma of Hoshiarmedals across agepage 1 pur and Jagsher group competition Singh Khangurra of and seniors. nabha, around 35 lthe newest km from Patiala, have brought batch of badminton talent in india medals. Since tanvi fin- Punjab is coming from rural ished runners-up at Senior na- areas of gurdaspur, ferozepur, tionals three yearsago,coaches Hoshiarpur and Phagwara, estimate, around 200 girl trai- even as 20 small-scale acadMumbai, October 18 anchor rajhans stadium in Jalandhar now has six refurbished courts emies have mushroomed all over the state, a four-fold rise over the past five years. lthe Punjab government pouredinnearlyRs3.5crorefor the refurbishment of the Raizada Hansraj stadium at Jalandhar from 2022 to 2026, while the number of synthetic courts in the state has gone from four to 10 in the last three years. lA U17 boys national final in 2025 ended up being Punjab vs Punjab, with Jagsher »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2 New Delhi ceived by multiple security agencies. in the clip, Pandit is heard threatening the film industry and warning Bollywood star Salman Khan, too. He asks Khan to apologise to his "brother" lawrence Bishnoi, a gangster lodged in tihar jail, and the Bishnoi community, »cOntinUeD On PAGe 2