The ideas Page: Washington’s russia pivot is geopolitical shift, carries message for india-us deal 9 MoNdAY, oCToBER 19, 2026 JournalisM of Courage luCknOw, laTe CITy, 16 paGeS ₹6.00 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 13 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 sahilWakode suicide:one monthdown, iit-b protest sitedemolished Pallavi smart Mumbai, October 18 A MontH after iit Bombay student Sahil Wakode died by suicide,hisparentsandprotesting students were detained by theMumbaiPoliceSundayand theinstitute’smainprotestsite, near the gate, where students had been staging a sit-in for fourweeks,wasclearedoutand demolished. Sahil’s parents, Ravindra and Sonali Wakode, arrived on campus to pay homage to their son,whodiedonSeptember18. Ravindraalsosubmittedaletter to the institute’s registrar. Siddhartha ingale, the family’s lawyer, said that as per the plan discussed with the iit Bombay administration, the parents were to pay homage to »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 New Delhi, October 18 in APRil this year, two neetUg aspirants were sitting at a teashopoutsidetheircoaching centreinPune,discussingtheir apprehensions over the exam, when the shop’s owner approached them. Hetoldthemthatafriendof his, a “doctor”, could get the question paper for them, but it would cost Rs 4.5 lakh. SheshraoBajrangSuryavanshi, owner of the tea stall Malak Chah, is the 14th accused 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 careercounsellorarrestedinnashik, Maharashtra, in May. Suryavanshi was arrested on September 2 by the CBi and senttojudicialcustodyafterhis three-day remand with the probe agency ended. duringtheinvestigation,CBi found that Suryavanshi took at »continUeD on PaGe 2 Submit educational documents: HC to UP govt school teachers of Classes 1-8 bhupendra Pandey oBSeRVing tHAt the deterioratingqualityofeducation and poor performance of teachers were reasons behind the closure of government primary schools in the state, the Allahabad High Court has directed all government school dubey (55), its vice-president. All the accused have been sent to police custody for 10 days. 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 Chai & NEET questions’ plate: CBI chargesheets cabinet secretariat flags tea stall owner in Pune delay in pulse research Mahender singh Manral scheme, agri ministry says ‘expediting’ it bench orDers ‘extensive verification’ by stf Lucknow, October 18 exPlained, page 7 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 longbeenwantingtoseedurga Puja in the city, said one of his relatives.onSaturdayevening, he left for the pandal with his wife, son Ayansh and two 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 teachers of Classes 1 to 8 to submit their educational documents within a week for an “extensive verification” by the Uttar Pradesh Police's Special task force (Stf). the teachers have been asked to submit their educational documents along with appointment letters to the BasicShikshaAdhikaris(BSAs) of their districts and file notarised affidavits with details of their immediate relatives, whetherservingorretired,who have been posted in the education department at the level of BSA or above. the court ordered the Stf to conduct the verification process expeditiously and fixed »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,whichtookplace 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 6 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- 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 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. lforthefirsttimeinthehislfoR tWo consecutive editions of the Badminton World tory of north Zone Badminton Junior Championships now, Championships this year, 10 shuttlers from Punjab, tanvi Punjab players ended with medals across ageSharma of Hoshiarpage 1 group competition pur and Jagsher and seniors. Singh Khangurra of lthe newest nabha, around 35 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, tionalsthreeyearsago,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 Lucknow