DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2025, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES BY UNNY DEBATE ON OP SINDOOR, PAHALGAM ATTACK IN LOK SABHA Govt says no pressure on ceasefire, targets met; Opp raises Trump claims New Lakshman Rekha: Rajnath; no link to US trade talks: Jaishankar; Cong trusts foreign narratives but not EAM: Shah Why did you wait for the inquiry to be over: SC to Justice Varma Justice Yashwant Varma EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JULY 28 THESUPREMECourtonMonday asked Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma why he decided to challenge the legality of the in-house inquiry against him after appearing before the committee and participating in the inquiry process. Thecommitteewassetupby the then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on March 22, a week after burnt currency notes werefoundatJusticeVarma'sofficial residence in New Delhi when a fire broke out on March 14. The panel found credence in the allegations against Justice Varma, who was then with the Delhi High Court. On Monday, the Supreme Court was hearing Justice Varma's plea seeking invalidation of the inquiry committee's report. The plea does not reveal JusticeVarma'sidentityandis titled, “XXX v. The Union of India”. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Justice Varma, told a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih that whatever had happened till now was unconstitutional. “All that has happened is completely contrary to the Constitutional scheme. The release of tapes, putting it on website, and a public furore consequential thereto, public discussion, media interaction, accusations against the judge... is all prohibited…The whole procedure has now become political. I (Justice Varma) havealreadybeenconvicted,”he said, referring to the video clip which purportedly showed the recovery of burnt currency notes. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UTTAR PRADESH VIKAS PATHAK, DEEPTIMAN TIWARY & DIVYA A NEW DELHI, JULY 28 STRONGLYDENYINGanylinkbetweenthetradetalkswiththeUS and the ceasefire with Pakistan, the government told Lok Sabha on Monday that there was no pressure to pause Operation Sindoor, and that it was halted only because “we had fulfilled our objectives”. The operation willresumeif Pakistanagaintries “any misadventure”, it said. Initiating a 16-hour special debate in the House on Operation Sindoor and the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh PAGE 3 underlined that Operation Sindoor has been paused and has not ended and that India would again give a befitting reply to Pakistan if it sponsors another terror attack, as a “new CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Along expected ● lines THE GOVERNMENT sought to debunk the Opposition’s charge that US President Donald Trump used the trade deal as a leverage for a ceasefire. The Opposition red-flagged security and intelligence failures, Trump’s role, IAF’s alleged losses. PAGE 5 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE SRINAGAR, NEW DELHI, JULY 28 Security personnel during a search operation after the encounter on the outskirts of Srinagar. Shuaib Masoodi AT LEAST three militants were killed in the Dachigam forest area on the outskirts of Srinagar, the Army said on Monday. While the identities of the dead are yet to be officially declared, officials from various security agencies said they are in the BIHAR SPECIAL INTENSIVE REVISION Consider Aadhaar and voter card, SC tells EC again; no Opp seeks answers on stay on draft roll security lapses, asks if India lost any jets Should be en masse inclusion, not en masse exclusion, says top court ASAD REHMAN, DEEPTIMAN TIWARY & LALMANI VERMA THE SUPREME Court Monday refused to stop the Election Commission (EC) from publishing the draft electoral roll for Bihar, drawn up following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), adding that the petitioners’ concerns had been taken care of by its July 10 order asking it to also consider Aadhaar and Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) for the exercise. A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said the EC can continue to consider Aadhaar and voter cards for the enumeration, and told the petitionersthattheCourtcanalways stepin and strikeitdownif there is any illegality. In its July 10 order, the apex court had asked the EC to considerAadhaar,voterIDandration NEW DELHI, JULY 28 THE SECURITY lapses that led to the Pahalgam attack, the failure to apprehend all the attackers, the claims by US President Donald Trump of having brokered peace between India and Pakistan, and the supposed losses of aircraft suffered by the armed forces — the Opposition raised all these issues during the debate on Operation Sindoor in the Lok Sabha Monday. Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi in LS. ANI Starting the debate on the Opposition’s behalf, Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said the Centre CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 3 militants killed in J&K, security agencies check for Pahalgam link process of ascertaining whether one of them is Suleiman Shah, a Pakistani terrorist suspected of being behind the April 22 Pahalgam attack that left 26 civilians dead. In a post on X at 1:32 pm, the Army’s Chinar Corps wrote: “Op Mahadev update: Three terrorists have been neutralised in an intense firefight. Operation continues.” The Northern Command posted in response: “Lt Gen Pratik Sharma, #ArmyCdrNC compliments Chinar Corps for theirswift action andpreciseexecutioninneutralisingthreeterrorists in the ongoing Operation MahadevinLidwas.IndianArmy stands by its commitment to keep Jammu and Kashmir terror-free.” As speculation stirred over the identities of the three men, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JULY 28 WHAT WILL NOT COUNTINBIHAR cards for the purpose of updating the rolls, but left it to the discretion of the poll body whether to accept or reject them. Asked about the Court order, ECsourcessaidnodirectionshad been issued to it, so the SIR procedure, including the documents mentioned in the indicative list, remained unchanged. Addressing Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who appeared CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD THAILAND AND CAMBODIA AGREE TO CEASEFIRE AFTER 5 DAYS OF BATTLE ISRAEL ALLOWS AID TO GAZA, UN BODY SAYS NEED STEADY SUPPLY PAGE 12 Divya Deshmukh, 19, after winning the FIDE Women’s World Cup. Anna Shtourman/FIDE An injured undergoing treatment at a hospital in Barabanki district on Monday. PTI Two ‘electrocuted’ to death, five injured in Barabanki temple EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE LUCKNOW, JULY 28 HOW MANY SHRINES HAVE STATES TAKEN OVER: SC TO BANKE BIHARI TEMPLE PANEL WANTED BIHAR GANGSTER GUNNED DOWN IN HAPUR Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Lok Sabha during the debate, Monday. PTI E E X P L A I NE D BUSINESS AS USUAL `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 TWODEVOTEES,includingaminor, were electrocuted to death while five others were injured due to electric shock at a temple in the Haidergarh area of Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district on Monday,thedistrict administration said. When the injured were being rushed to hospital, the rumour of electrocution caused a stampede-like situation with people running out of the temple, officials said. Thedeceasedwereidentified as Ramesh Kumar, 28, and Prashant Kumar, 17. The incident occurred at the Awsaneshwar temple when a wire broke off and fell on the temple’s tin shed, under which a crowd of devotees had assembledtooffer‘jalabhishek’ (offering water and milk to Shivlinga) at 2.30 am, the administration said in a statement. The wire, which was used for lightinginsidethetemple,broke off after a group of monkeys jumped on it, the officials said. BarabankiDistrictMagistrate CONTINUEDONPAGE4 Divya beats Humpy, takes WC route to GM title AMIT KAMATH & MAYANK MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, JULY 28 IN GEORGIA, a country that birthed some of the earliest pioneers of women’s chess, India has discovered its own worldbeater: Divya Deshmukh, aged just 19, became the FIDE Women’s World Cup champion bydefeatingtheveteran, Koneru Humpy, 38, in the final via the tiebreakers on Monday. Divya winning the Women's World Cup also makes her eligibletobeIndia’sfourthwomanto become a grandmaster, which is significant because before the eventstarted,shehadnoneof the three norms required for it. But in one fell swoop, thanks to a CONTINUEDONPAGE4 From drone mapping to removing water hyacinth, how a river was revived in UP PAGE 1 ANCHOR MAULSHREE SETH KANPUR, LUCKNOW, JULY 28 TILL EARLY February, there was no visible sign of the Noon river that once meandered through Kanpur district’s Rampur Narua village. Locals say an infestation of the jal kumbhi (water hyacinth),whichaffectswaterflow and aquatic life, had rendered the thriving river indistinguishable from the fields it once The rejuvenated Noon flows through Kanpur district’s Rampur Narua village. Vishal Srivastav snaked through. At Rampur Narua, its origin point, today, the river flows nearly six feet wide — the result of a state-wide river rejuvenationprogrammeaspartof which every district in the state has been tasked with reviving at least one river in their jurisdiction. In Kanpur, the district administration decided to revive the Noon, one of the district’s four forgotten rivers, since it had been blocked due to the jal kumbhi and construction debris, and had not dried up like the others. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow