The Editorial Page: Peace eludes West Asia. To plan ahead, India’s political class must come together 10 SATURDAy, MARCh 21, 2026 JournalIsm of Courage nEw DELHI, LaTE cITy, 22 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 , LU 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 KUWaiT reFinery hiT By Drones, israeL KiLLs irgC oFFiCer; MoJTaBa haiLs iran ‘resisTanCe’ Iran now unable to enrich uranium, says Netanyahu; US looks at control of Kharg Govt asks WhatsApp to block device IDs used in digital The War arrest scams day 21 More Marines, assault ship being deployed, Trump calls his NATO allies ‘cowards’ lAs energy crisis deepened, Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi, which can process 730,000 barrels of oil per day, came under Iranian drone attacks. alexander Cornwell, Jana Choukeir & Trevor hunnicutt lA spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ali Mohammad Naini, was killed in US-Israel strikes Tel Aviv, Dubai, Washington, March 20 THe US military is deploying a large amphibious assault ship with thousands of additional Marines and sailors to the Middle east, three US officials told Reuters friday, as iran’s new supreme leader hailed iran’s “unity” and “resistance”. Reuters had reported that Washington, desperate to reopen the Gulf oil bottleneck of the Strait of Hormuz, shut by iran since the US and israel attacked almost three weeks ago, was considering deploying thousandsofmoretroopstothe Middle east, potentially even landing on iran’s shore or its Kharg island oil export hub. oil prices have risen around 50% since the start of the war. israeliPrimeMinisterBenjamin netanyahu promised to heed US President Donald Trump’s instruction not to repeat the attack on iran’s gas field,butalsosaidiranwasnow unable to enrich uranium, which can be used in nuclear warheads,ormakeballisticmissiles. netanyahu said israel had acted alone in bombing iran’s South Pars gas field. iran was being “decimated” and “does »ConTinUeD on page 2 happening today lThe MinisTry of Education is organising a two-day pre-summit of Bharat Innovates DeepTech. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will address the summit during a special session. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com naTion PAGE 6 RS 500 hIKE IN woMEN SChEME: TMC MANIFESTo Business as Usual By EP UNNy high-LeveL CoMMiTTee MeeTing lFrench Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who met Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar in Tel Aviv, said Friday he did not see an obvious end to conflict in the short-term. lUkraine has deployed military units to UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan to help protect critical and civilian infra. tion carried out with the British, Friday seized the Deyna vessel, a member of the Russian shadow fleet, Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X. We turned down US Another Indian killed in missile request to let jets land attack on Riyadh, toll up to six in Sri Lanka: President shubhajit roy expLained New Delhi, March 20 Says also declined Iranian request for visit by 3 ships returning from India Uditha Jayasinghe Colombo, March 20 SRi lAnKA declined permission for two US combat aircraft to land at a civilian airport earlier this month, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told parliament friday. The US had requested permission for the two aircraft to land at the Mattala Rajapaksa international Airport in the southern part of the country from March 4-8, Dissanayake told lawmakers. “They wanted to bring two warplanes armed with eight anti-ship missiles from a base in Djibouti,” he said during a statement. “We turned down the request to maintain Sri lanka’s neutrality,” he added to applause from parliamentarians. The US had made the request on february 26. »ConTinUeD on page 2 AnoTHeR inDiAn national waskilledinaniranianattackon Riyadh Wednesday — the sixth indiantobekilledintheongoing conflict in West Asia so far. The indian embassy in Riyadh friday confirmed the death,butdidn’tshareotherdetails. “The embassy of india expresses its deepest condolences onthetragicdemiseofanindian nationalinRiyadhduetorecent events on March 18th. The embassyisintouchwiththefamily andlocalauthorities.Weremain committedtoextendingallpossible assistance in this matter,” it said in a post on X. PAGE 15 AS U.S. wEIGhS IRAN oIl RElIEF, ThE PoSSIBIlITy FoR INDIA Sourcessaidthatasperavailableinformation,theindiannationaldiedfollowingamissileattack on Riyadh on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister narendra Modi spoke to King Hamad Bin isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain friday. “Had a fruitful discussion with the King of Bahrain... conveyed warm greetingsontheoccasionofeid express exclusive lFrench Navy, in an opera- More reporTs, page 16 during the funeral procession of Iran’s intelligence minister esmail khatib in Tehran, Friday. aP Platform to implement suggestions, some already being put in place al-fitr to him and the people of Bahrain. We discussed the current situation in the West Asian region. condemned attacks on the energy and civilian infrastructure in the region, underscoringtheiradverseimpacton globalfood,fuelandfertilisersecurity,”ModisaidinapostonX. “Reiterated the importance of ensuring freedom of navigationandkeepingshippinglines open and secure. Thanked His Majesty for his continued supportforthewell-beingoftheindian community in Bahrain,” he said. external Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also spoke to Australian foreign Minister Penny Mahender singh Manral New Delhi, March 20 BlocKinG DeVice iDs involved in cases of digital arrest, introducing safety features similar to those on Skype, and strengthening technology to detectandblockharmfulAPKs, thefileformatsusedinAndroid systems. These are some of the key measures WhatsApp has been asked to implement by a highlevelinter-Departmentalcommittee (iDc) constituted by the Union Home Ministry to tackle the threat of digital arrest, including the impersonation of lawenforcementofficerstoperpetrate the scam, The Indian Express has learnt. Sources said that the Metaowned messaging service has agreed to implement these measures and is already in the l onTheTabLe l Evaluate blocking device IDs to stop repeat scam accounts. l Explore skype-like protective features. l retain deleted user data for 180 days for investigations. l Improve detection and blocking of harmful aPKs. lEnhance aI/ML to detect impersonation and fake content. processofputtinginplacesome of them. it is learnt that the interactionwithrepresentativesof WhatsApptookplaceearlierthis monthduringthethirdmeeting of the iDc, which was constituted in December 2025. According to officials, the representatives made extensive submissions regarding the platform’s detection mechanisms, enforcement actions and platformsafeguardsduringthe meeting. “Based on the »ConTinUeD on page 2 The BIg PIcTUre wRIT PETITIoN No. 13029 — A CASE ShUTS PAGE 12 »ConTinUeD on page 2 Vi seeks investor to enable Govt exit; SC to hear on Monday Premium petrol price US-based fund eyes domestic tie-up parents’ plea against hiked by Rs 2 a litre, soumyarendra Barik Gurgaon police for no & anil sasi bulk diesel up Rs 22 arrest in POCSO case WesT asia War FaLLoUT New Delhi, March 20 No change in regular petrol, diesel rates sukalp sharma New Delhi, March 20 WiTH THe West Asia war leading to a surge in international crude oil and fuel prices and burdeningindia’spublic sector refinersandfuelretailers,prices ofpremiumpetrolandbulkdiesel consumed by industrial users were hiked friday. The priceofregularpetrolanddiesel remained unchanged. The price of premium 95octane petrol was hiked by Rs 2 perlitreinDelhitoRs101.89per litre, with corresponding changes in other parts of the country. The price of industrial diesel went up by around Rs 22 per litre to Rs 109.59 in Delhi, from Rs 87.67 per litre. According to a senior government official, the premium petrol caters to a miniscule »ConTinUeD on page 2 People wait with empty LPG cylinders in Prayagraj, Friday. PTI To fAciliTATe its potential exit from beleaguered telecom operator Vodafone idea (Vi), the Government has asked the debt-ridden company to expand its search for an investor and look for bothdomestic and international options, The Indian Express has learnt. last month,thisnewspaper had reported that two big domestic corporate groups had evinced interest in this regard at different points in time. However, given that Vodafone idea’s path to survival is seemingly murky due to its highdebt obligations, and it con- tinues to lose subscribers to rivalsRelianceJioandBhartiAirtel, the search has been widened to also look for international investors, two top Government officials said. it is also understood that a US-based fund with an indianorigin founder is learnt to have evincedinterest,andcouldjoin »ConTinUeD on page 2 Iftar on Ganga: Police now charge 14 arrested men with extortion l TwoindianLpG Manish sahu carriersreadytosail Lucknow, March 20 Two Indian-flagged LPG tankers are preparing to transit the strait of Hormuz in coming days after a pause in voyages with no crude oil tankers leaving the waterway in the past 24 hours, according to shipping data and sources. The tankers were currently anchored in Gulf waters, as per data from Kpler and shipping sources. reuTers Police in Varanasi have invoked extortion charges against 14 people arrested earlier this week over an iftar gathering on a boat on the river Ganga on March 15. They were arrested on March 17 and have since been in jail. Thepoliceactionfolloweda complaint alleging that the men, all in their 20s, had con- an iftar gathering was organised on a boat on march 15 sumed chicken biryani and thrown the leftovers into the river. The complaint was filed by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha district president Rajat Jaiswal. “We have invoked BnS section 308 (extortion) against the accused based on the statements of the boat operators, who alleged that the group forcibly took control of the motorboat after issuing threats,” Assistant commissioner of Police, Varanasi, Vijay Pratap »ConTinUeD on page 2 abhimanyu hazarika & ananthakrishnan g Gurgaon, March 20 THe SUPReMe courtwill hear Monday a plea by a Gurgaon parent seeking the transfer of the investigation into the alleged sexual assault on his three-year-old daughter to an independent or specialised agency such as the cBi. The matter was mentioned by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi before chief Justice of india (cJi) Surya Kant friday. inthepleafiledonMarch17, the child’s father said that despite the gravity of the offence, the Gurgaon Police had made no “meaningful investigative progress” and no arrests. According to the fiR registered on february 4, the child was subjected to repeated sexual assault during December and January by two female domestic helps and an unidenti- fied male accomplice in the family’shomeinahighriseresidential complex, sources said. The petition states that the child had identified the accused women on multiple occasions, including before the police and a magistrate. The male accused is the husband of one of the women, it says. Thepetitionhasallegedthat policedidnottakestepssuchas seizing mobile phones, collecting forensic evidence from the identifiedroomandresidences of the women, analysing ccTV footage, recording witness statements, or tracing the alleged male accomplice. After the police allegedly failedtotakeaction,theparents filed a monitoring petition beforeadistrictcourtonfebruary 11,saysthepetition.Policethen submitted status reports to the court, the petition has said. Thepetitionhasallegedthat »ConTinUeD on page 2 l PoLIce InvesTIGaTInG cause oF 15-year-oLd’s deaTh; 18-year-oLd daLIT and Four oThers Booked under Pocso acT Instagram friendship, instant death, and lingering questions in a Bihar village himanshu harsh “She was very skilled, good at studies. She could even ride motorcycles.Shewantedtojoin He SiTS on a plastic chair out- the police,” he says, referring to side his modest, unplastered his15-year-olddaughter,found single-storey house in a village dead in a well next to an abanin Bihar’s Saran district, sur- doned house on March 11. rounded by relatives who have An 18-year-old Dalit from come to offer conthe village and four paGe 1 dolencesand,forthe others have been past few days, politibooked under the cians across party PocSo Act and lines. inside the two-room charged with culpable homihouse, with no toilet and only a cide, murder, abetment of suihand pump just outside for cide, assault, criminal conspiwater, there is palpable tension racy and destruction of — and a wariness of strangers. evidence. The 15-year-old Patna, March 20 anchor Rajputgirlwasallegedlyinarelationship with the Dalit boy — their friendship, forbidden by caste lines, developed largely on social media. While police are investigating whether the boy killed the girl, they deny sexual assault. “The post-mortem shows deathfromdrowning.noexternal injuries were observed, and there is no indication of sexual assault,” DGP Vinay Kumar said in a statement on March 18. He added that the roles of four others and their links to the prime accused are beingin- HIMansHU HarsH The well where the girl’s body was found in Bihar’s saran vestigated, though there is no corroboration yet of their presence at the scene. The coming local polls have made caste a flashpoint in the case,andamongthosewhohave visitedthegirl’sfamilyareBJP’s Saran MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, RJD’s Parsa MlA Karishma Rai and Purnea MP Pappu Yadav. Saran is Rudy’s home turf. As the spotlight lingers, the girl’s family say they are exhausted. “for almost a week, leaders, ministers, media, everyone keeps coming and askingthesamethings.Willmy daughter come back? i don’t want to speak to anyone anymore,” the mother says. Her husband asks her to quieten down, but one of the daughtersinterjects:“Mummy’s right.She’sgone,sowhatwillall this crowding do? All they give are assurances.” The village is predominantly Rajput, with only a few Dalit families. The girl and the suspect lived near each other but with the worlds of the two castes entirely separate, it was instagram that brought them together, say sources. The well where the girl was foundhasnoparapetaroundit. Her father who works outside Bihar rushed home on March13afterhearingabouther death. The family lives on his monthlyearningsofRs18,000– Rs20,000.Asspeculationgrows about how the girl and the boy kept in touch, the father says there is a single phone at home, kept by his wife. “i called every two-three days.” He says he last came home a year ago, and his last conversation with his daughter was in »ConTinUeD on page 2