DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2021, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES STANDOFF ALONG LAC IN LADAKH After drug haul, Adani port bans container cargo from Iran, Pak, Afghanistan India, China deadlocked on Hot Springs, chill deepens after Round 13 AHMEDABAD, NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 11 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE Security forces at Surankote in Poonch, where five Army personnel were killed in an encounter with militants on Monday. PTI Five soldiers killed in Poonch: Encounter still on, militants suspected to have crossed LoC Most fierce gunfight in area in 17 yrs: officials ARUN SHARMA JAMMU, OCTOBER 11 AJUNIORCommissionedOfficer and four jawans were killed Monday morning in an encounter with a group of heavily armed militants in the dense forests of Chamred on the Mughal Road, which connects Jammu’s border Poonch district with Shopian in Kashmir. It was after 17 years that the area saw such a deadly encounter, the last being in 2004, when four soldiers had been killed. Till Monday evening, the operation was still on, and had spread to adjoining Rajouri dis- BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY NOBEL EXPLAINED: TOP PRIZE FOR LABOUR ECONOMICS PAGE 13 NC LEADERS RANA, SLATHIA JOIN BJP P5 (From left) Jaswinder Singh, Vaisakh H, Saraj Singh, Mandeep Singh, Gajjan Singh trict’sPangaiarea,withmilitants, believed to be four to five in number, taking on security forcesthere.Officialssuspectthe militants are part of the group that infiltrated across the Line of Control in Poonch in August. Confirming the casualties, the Army PRO, Lt Colonel Devender Anand, said the soldiers were on a search and combing operation, which had CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A gallantry winner, a new father, an only bread-winner ANJU AGNIHOTRI CHABA, KAMALDEEP SINGH BRAR, MANISH SAHU & SHAJU PHILIP JALANDHAR, AMRITSAR, LUCKNOW, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCTOBER 11 IN2006,NaibSubedarJaswinder Singh had been awarded the Sena Medal for his role in killing three terrorists in Kashmir. On Monday, days away from a ceremony to be held for his late father, the 39-year-old fell to militant bullets in Poonch. Familymemberssaidthelast time they spoke, on Saturday night, Jaswinder had enquired about the date being set for the ceremony, and insisted on talking to everyone. Survived by his wife Sukhpreet Kaur (35), CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PANDORA PAPERS – PART 8 AN INVESTIGATION BY THE INDIAN EXPRESS WITH INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS Homebuyers, investors high and dry, Ireo’s Goyal moved $77 million to offshore trust P VAIDYANATHAN IYER NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 11 UAPA arrests over Taliban posts: Assam courts give bail, say not enough to hold them TORA AGARWALA GUWAHATI, OCTOBER 11 AT LEAST 14 of the 16 people arrested by the Assam Police in August for allegedly putting up social media posts “supporting” the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan have been granted bail by the local courts. While all but one had been booked under thestringentUAPA,whichmakes bailverydifficult,thecourtsruled that there were not enough grounds to keep them in jail. Assam Special DGP (Law and Order) G P Singh had announced the first 14 arrests on August 21, while two more were held the next day. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had directed police to “act without fear and favour”. Asked about the court orders, Singh told The Indian Express: "Bail is the prerogative of the judiciary." Among those who have got bail is Maulana Fazlul Karim Qasimi, 49, former AIUDF general secretary and Jamiat state secretary, hailing from Sipajhar inDarrangdistrict.Grantinghim bail on October 6, the Gauhati HighCourtsaidtherewas“nothing incriminating” against him barring that Facebook post. “Evenif itisacceptedthattheapplicant is the author of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OBSERVINGTHAT“buildersonly understand the colour of money orajailterm,”theSupremeCourt bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah held incontemptanIREOGroupcompany on August 19 for failing to comply with its order directing refundof moneytoahomebuyer. Many homebuyers, having lost hope of getting their apartments, are approaching courts, seeking possession or refund. So are marquee foreign investors such as Axon Capital and Children’s Fund Foundation in courts overseas for returns on hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into the group’s projects. The IREO Group flagship IREO Private Limited is reelingin losses— Rs500crorein 2018-19. But group co-founder Lalit Goyal, whose sister is married to BJPleaderSudhanshuMittal,had moved assets, investments, and shareholdings, worth an esti- Trident Trust documents which show Lalit Goyal as the Beneficial Owner of Turquoise Waters Worldwide Limited mated$77million,toanoffshore trust structure which included four entities registered in the British Virgin Islands muchbeforethegroup gotintotrouble,reveal internaldocumentsof Trident Trust, a global corporate services company. According to these documents, Goyal — his residence address is mentioned as Marina Bay Residences, 18 Marina Boulevard, #45-08, Singapore — had set up the Oak Veneer Trust in tax haven Guernsey with Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Ltd as a trustee. Goyal is the ‘Settlor’ — one who sets up or authors the trust — of Oak Veneer Trust. He and Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Ltd – byvirtue of itbeinga trusteeof OakVeneer– arethe‘BeneficialOwners’of the four offshore entities, all of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Fake encounter report brings little relief; village wants school, ration shop — and a better life PAGE 1 ANCHOR CHHATTISGARH Raipur GARGI VERMA EDESMETTA (BIJAPUR), OCTOBER 11 THERE IS no school, no anganwadi, no health centre, no ration shop. There’sjustthelingeringpain of loss, simmering anger — and, forSanakiPunem,hernine-yearold grandson Mahesh. At Edesmetta, nestled in forested hillocks on the border of Dantewada and Bijapur and still only accessible on foot, Punem never lets Mahesh out of sight. Even when the 59-year- BIJAPUR Villagers gathered at the spot of the 2013 incident. Gargi Verma old sits down under a neem tree near her hut to speak to The Indian Express, her eyes constantly follow him. “I am scared to let him go too far, he is all I have,” she said. Punem’s son and Mahesh’s father, Sonu Punem, was among the eight branded as “Maoists” and gunned down in Edesmetta by security personnel on the night of May 16-17, 2013. Last month, a judicial probe report submitted to the Chhattisgarh governmentconfirmedwhatthe residentsof this villagehad been saying all along: the encounter was a “mistake” and none of those killed were Maoists. “Now the government has to makeamends.Thoseresponsible shouldbepunished,”Punemsaid. It’s a refrain that echoes across Edesmetta. Residents say thiswas oncea sprawlingvillage that retreated into the forests after Salwa Judum, the vigilante force raised by the then government, marked its presence for the first time. “They burnt our houses, fields, even our shrines. So, we hadtomovetowardsthejungles. We saw real violence between 2007and2010.We hadbeenliving in relative peace till 2013,” Mangu Karam, a small-time paddy farmer like most of the residents, said. With the nearest motorable road 15 km away in Gangaloor, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Put constructive suggestions, but China did not agree, says Army Border point has a past, pullback there is key to de-escalation in region KRISHN KAUSHIK KRISHN KAUSHIK A YEAR-AND-A-HALF into the military standoff on the Line of ActualControlineasternLadakh, India and China have hardened their positions after making no headway in the 13th round of Corps Commander-level talks to try and resolve the situation at Hot Springs. On Monday, a day after the talks at the Moldo border personnel meeting point near Chushul,IndiaandChina,intheir sharpest exchange since the Galwan Valley clashes in June 2020 and diplomatic efforts thereafter to reach a negotiated solution, blamed each other for thefailuretomakeprogressover Hot Springs. Troops have disengaged on the north and south banks of SOUTHEAST OF Galwan Valley where 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiersdiedinclashesinJune2020, Hot Springs lies in the Chang Chenmo river valley, close to Kongka La, a pass that marks the Line of Actual Control. India’s Patrolling Point 15, it is not a launchpadforanyoffensiveaction thoughtheareadidseeactionbefore and during the 1962 war. China’s unwillingness to pull back its platoon-sized unit from Hot Springs is a sign of the difficultiesthatlieinnormalisingthe situation. The PLA has traditionally had a major base east of Kongka La. The pass also marks the border between two of NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 11 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 11 DaulatBegOldie GalwanValley HotSprings LEH CHINA AVINASH NAIR & KARUNJIT SINGH ALMOST A month after nearly 3,000 kg of heroin was seized from two containers at its Mundra port in Kutch in one of thebiggestsuchhaulseverinthe country, Adani Ports and Special EconomicZone(APSEZ)Monday issued a trade advisory stating that from next month, it will not handle anycontainer cargo originating from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Pleasebeinformedthatwith effect from November 15, 2021, APSEZwillnothandleEXIMcontainerisedcargooriginatingfrom Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Thistradeadvisorwillapplytoall terminalsoperatedbyAPSEZand including third party terminals at any APSEZ port till further notice,” stated the advisory signed byChief ExecutiveOfficerSubrat Tripathy. Sources told The Indian Express that exporters are likely to approach the Government over the impact of the move on the cost of exports, particularly to Iran. Ajay Sahai, Director General and CEO of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), said the decision would force many exporters to send theirmerchandisethroughother ports. “For trade, this will be a setback as the cost of shipment will go up. A lot of North Indian exporters use the Mundra port," he said. `6.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 GograPost Pangong Tso LADAKH NorthBank SouthBank INDIA China’s mostsensitive provinces —XinjiangtothenorthandTibet to the south. Kongka La lies west of China’s G219 highway which connects Xinjiang and Tibet. Intherun-uptothe1962war, an incident at Kongka La made the Indian government hand overtheresponsibilityof theborder in Ladakh to the Army. On October 20, 1959, a three-member Indian police patrol was detained by the Chinese at CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lakhimpur Kheri: Ashish Mishra in police custody, BJP backs his father MANISH SAHU & LIZ MATHEW LUCKNOW, NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 11 WITHUNIONMoSAjayMishra’s son remanded in police custody over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident for which he is facing murdercharges,theBJPisrallyingbehind the Minister with senior leaders pointing out that he has deniedhisson’sinvolvementand thatUPPolicehavenotfoundany Arrested late Saturday LAKHIMPUR: BANDH IN MAHARASHTRA P5 evidence to indicate otherwise. With Opposition parties stepping up their demand for Mishra’sresignation,BJPsources told The Indian Express that the party is awaiting progress on the police investigation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take a call once the police complete their probe, they said. On Monday, Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra was remanded in police custody for three days by a court in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2