The editorial Page: us wants to build a new world. india must ask if it is open, fair and just 10 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2026 Journalism of Courage KolKata, late city, 18 PageS ₹6.00 (₹12 in north east states, ₹20 in andaman) 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 l VICE PRESIDENT c P radhak- rishnan will address the commissioning ceremony of INS Samarthak in Karnataka. TrACK TheSe And More on www.indianEXPRESS.com Business as usual By EP UNNY STRING OF NOTICES ON PETITIONS RELATING TO S.I.R., PROTESTS, POLICE ACTION Supreme Court notice to CEC, 2 ECs; Jantar Mantar matter will be heard Commission response sought on Form 6 modification linked to SIR; bench says one Opp petitioner has to explain conduct Apurva Vishwanath New Delhi, October 15 tAkiNg UP a batch of 46 petitions arising from protests in theCapitalseekingtheresignation of Chief election Commissioner gyanesh kumar, the Supreme Court thursday issued notice to the election Commission ofindia,CeC kumar,elec- tion Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and vivek Joshi, seeking their responses on a plea filed by the Opposition iNDiA bloc leaders. the bench of Chief Justice of india Surya kant and Justice Joymalya bagchi, during an hour-long hearing, also agreed to examine the Delhi Police’s »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 inSidE PaGe 7 ‘turNeD DelhI INto INDIa-Pak BorDer’: CJP, aIsa CoNDemN PolICe aCtIoN eCI to CoNDuCt aNNual revIsIoN of rolls IN states where s.I.r. Is over CJP gathering today, CP park shut for 2 days, police say taking steps Express News Service New Delhi, Mumbai, October 15 WitH tHe Cockroach Janta Party calling for a ‘Lehra Do tiranga’ gathering in the Capital Friday, the New Delhi Municipal Council thursday announced that the Central Park in Connaught Place will remain shut to the public on October 16 and 17 “due to administrative reasons”. the Delhi Police also informed the Delhi High Court thatactionwillbetakenagainst »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 relateD rePorts, P 7 EXPRESS special Goods exports jump 23% in Sept, services dip, trade deficit eases Ravi Dutta Mishra New Delhi, October 15 DriveN by a 48% jump in goods exports to the US amid worries about fresh tariffs over oil imports from russia, india’s goods exports in September jumped 23% to $44.40 billion while services exports registered a rare dip, data released bytheCommerceandindustry Ministry on thursday showed. While goods exports jumped from $36.08 billion in September last year, imports grew at a slower pace of 8% to $74.61 billion, compared to $69.08 billion last September. the slower pace of import growth helped the trade deficit marginally ease to $30.2 billion lServicesexports Month 2026 Sep aug Jul Jun May apr Mar Feb Jan 36.35 35.47 38.25 36.19 33.19 36.84 38.2 34.7 38.16 2025 36.67 31.19 33.74 32.11 32.41 32.85 35.62 31.64 34.74 Change (%) -0.87 13.72 13.37 12.71 2.41 12.15 7.24 9.67 9.84 FigureS in $ bn; Source: rbi last month, compared to $33 billion last September. the comparatively slower »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Days after joining anti-CEC protest, Imran Khan ordered to leave India New patrons, old politics: Bengal Bypassing firewalls, AI Durga Puja navigates power shift agents accessed data of Actor is US citizen, Indian firms: CERT-In Atri Mitra & OCI cardholder; Apoorva Agashe & Omkar Gokhale Mumbai, October 15 ACtOr iMrAN khan, a US citizen and Overseas Citizen of india (OCi) cardholder, has been issued a notice by the Foreigners regional registration Office (FrrO), asking him to leave india by October 28, days Actor Imran Khan was detained in Mumbai on october 10. File Govt’s sweePING Powers over oCI CarDholDers PaGe 14 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Adrija Roychowdhury Soumyarendra Barik Kolkata, New Delhi, Oct 15 New Delhi, October 15 AtLAketown,inthenorthern suburbsofkolkata,thelightsare on and festive anticipation fills the air. On the eve of Mahalaya lastweekend,whichmarkedthe beginning of the countdown to Durga Puja, workers rushed to put the final touches on this year’s pandal: an 80-foot-tall replicaofJaipur’sHawaMahal, SOMe ArtiFiCiAL intelligence(Ai)agentsthatweresupposed to conduct research and run evaluations on the internet managed to bypass firewalls and “reached” live systems of indian organisations, gaining access to sensitive information such as business records, “including personal data and confidential material”, the indian »CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 At Santosh Mitra Square Puja pandal in Kolkata Thursday evening. The Puja theme is ‘Sanatani Chetanay Vande Mataram’. Partha Paul Bengal’s Greatest Festival Durga Puja Celebrate the triumph of good over evil… May Maa Durga’s divine blessings fill us with joy and peace Warm greetings and best wishes to people of West Bengal on the occasion of Durga Puja Wishing everyone happiness and good health Come, let us unite to celebrate the festive spirit of Durga Puja Suvendu Adhikari Hon’ble Chief Minister, West Bengal ICA-D1615(23)/2026 to file plea in HC afterheparticipatedinaprotest against Chief election Commissioner (CeC) gyanesh kumar in Mumbai. khan is set tochallengetheFrrOnoticein the bombay High Court. khan was among the protesters detained at Mumbai’s August kranti Maidan on October 10. bJP leader kirit Somaiya, who filed a police complaint, alleged that the actor’s participationinapoliticaldemonstration violated OCi rules and visa conditions, and sought his detention and deportation.thepoliceforwarded Kolkata Computer emergency responseteam(Cert-in)hassaid. this is perhaps the first known instance of Ai agents going “rogue” and targeting cyber infrastructure of indiabased entities. Cert-in also revealedthatnoneoftheaffected organisations detected the unauthorised access, and, in each case,theincidentwasdisclosed by the Ai model providers after their internal review. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2