MCS/204/2020-22 RNI No. MAheNG 2002/21899 www.INDIANexPReSS.CoM The Man who Waited for the Win From never getting the chance to play for India to guiding the women’s team to their first World Cup triumph, it has been a long journey for Amol Muzumdar MUMBAI, NoveMBer 16, 2025 lATe CITy 14 + 4 PAGeS ₹6.00 D A I l y spotlIght Zeshan B’s Campaign for Zohran Mamdani F R o M : A h M e D A b A D , C h A N D I G A R h , D e l h I , j A I P U R , K o l K A T A , l U C K N o w , M U M b A I , N A G P U R , P A T N A , P U N e , v A D o D A R A explosIves seIzed FroM red Fort terror Module J&K police station blast was accident, says DGP; 9 killed 16/11/2025 106 134 166 85 Happening today lIAF’s su-30MKI FIghter jets will operate alongside French fighters in simulated air combat scenarios as part of 'Garuda 25' bilateral exercise at Mont-de-Marsan, France. The exercise, which aims to refine tactics and procedures, will continue until November 27. lJust over A Month AFter provocative gestures during the three matches between India and Pakistan’s main teams in Dubai sparked a row, the ‘A’ teams of the two sides will clash in Doha at the Rising Stars Asia Cup. lthe rss Is scheduled to carry out its centenary march in Chittapur town of Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district. The route of the foot march was at the centre of a legal and political tug-of-war in the Congress-ruled state. Indigo,AkasaAir tolaunchflights fromnavi Mumbaiairport fromdec25 express news service Mumbai, November 15 INDIGO aND akasa air will launch flight operations from the newly inaugurated Navi Mumbai International airport (NMIa) starting December 25, making them among the first airlines to begin services at the MumbaiMetropolitanregion’s second airport. Both airlines announced their initial operational schedules, with IndiGo planning connectivity to 10 domestic destinations and akasa air rolling out a multi-phase launch covering four cities. IndiGo said it will launch flights from NMIa to Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, ahmedabad, lucknow, North Goa (Mopa), Jaipur, Nagpur, Kochi and Mangalore. The airline stated that NMIa is designed to complement Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport and catertorisingairtraveldemand in the region, adding that it plansto“expand its operations, progressively,” by introducing more direct routes. akasa air will operate its first Delhi-NMIa flight on December 25, followed by direct servicestoGoaonthesameday, and to Kochi and Delhi from »contInued on pAge 2 Bihar CM Nitish Kumar with Union Minister Chirag Paswan in Patna; PM Narendra Modi in Surat, Saturday. ANI & PTI JDU flags PM role in win, says Modi PM and Nitish CM is ‘Bihar dream’ deeptiman tiwary aDayaftertheNDa’slandslide win in the Bihar assembly elections, JD(U) national working president Sanjay Jha on Saturday told The Indian Express in aninterviewthat“forBihar,having Modi as the PM and Nitish Kumar as the CM is a dream combination” and “there is no confusion within the NDa” on the CM question. Union Minister Chirag Paswan, whose party lJP (rV) won 19 of the 28 seats it contested as part of the NDa, too, said that he “personally”feelsNitishshouldcontinue to head the government Jha said the “double-engine” government was one of the reasons for the party’s victory.“ForBihar,havingModias thePMandNitishKumarasthe CM is a dream combination. PeoplethoughtthiswasBihar’s moment. Both the 2024 and 2025 Union Budgets had sig- ExprEss interview People of Bihar don’t need politics lessons, they teach world: PM No terror angle: Police; material stored in open, inspection was on Kamal saiyed Personally feel Nitish should continue to head government, says ally Chirag New Delhi, November 15 A damaged building inside the Nowgam police station premises on the outskirts of Srinagar. PTI Srinagar, November 15 Surat, November 15 sAnJAy JhA jD(U) woRKING PReSIDeNT Page 8 nificant allocations for Bihar. The PM was in Bihar almost every month in the past couple of years, launching or announcing some project. This played a role,” he said. asked if Nitish would take oath as CM for a record 10th time, he said, “Things will be clear when the time comes. Internally, there is no confusion within the NDa.”‘ »contInued on pAge 2 Among victims: Cops, revenue official, police photographers, a tailor CreDITING THe people of Bihar for the massive mandate thatreturnedtherulingNDato power in the state, Prime MinisterNarendraModisaidSaturday that they had rejected the “poison of casteism” and the “divisive” politics of the “Muslimleague-MaowadiCongress (MMC) and allied parties” and opted for “new heights in development”. Targeting Congress leader rahul Gandhi and rJD’s Tejashwi yadav — he did not take namesbutreferredtoa“naamdar” and a “jamanati beta” — Modi, who was addressing migrants from Bihar at the Surat International airport, said, “Bihar ke logon ko rajniti samjhani nahi padti hai, woh verdIct 2025 BIhAr ReP0RTs, Pages 7, 8 duniya ko rajniti samjhane ki taakat rakhte hain.” (“One doesn’t have to teach politics to the people of Bihar, they wield the power to teach politics to the world.”) “Go anywhere in the world, and you will find Bihar’stalent. Bihar is now showing a willingnesstoreachnewheightsindevelopment. This election reflectedthatwillingness.Bihar’s women and youth — Mahila and yuva, M-y — formed a combination that has »contInued on pAge 2 Bashaarat Masood ON FrIDay night, at the Nowgam police station on the outskirts of Srinagar, a forensics team was examining the explosivesrecoveredfromthered Fort blast-linked Jaish-e-Mohammad terror module busted lastweek.accompanyingthem wereofficialsoftheStateInvestigation agency (SIa), which had taken over the case a day earlier, revenue officials on magisterial duty, and a tailor called in to stitch the bags where the seized material would be stored. also present wereafewseniorpoliceofficers. as the sampling process dragged on longer than expected, the police officers stepped out for a stroll, while someoftheofficialswenttothe »contInued on pAge 2 The victims’ relatives at a tribute ceremony in Srinagar. PTI Bashaarat Masood & naveed Iqbal Srinagar, November 15 MOHaMMaD aMIN Mir last spoketohisyoungerbrotheron the phone Friday night. “I am busy,”hesaid.“Iwillfinishwork soon and return home.” Mir, a head constable at the Forensic Science laboratory (FSl) posted at the District Police lines, Srinagar, was part of the team that went to the Nowgam police station to collect samples from the explosivemaking materials that went off late Friday night. Barely 35 minutes after the brief phone conversation, a powerful blast ripped through »contInued on pAge 2 locAl polIce stAtIons’ role Key In FIghtIng terror 10 years after Dadri man lynched over beef Mumbai Police have Anti Terror Cells suspicion, UP govt moves to withdraw case at all police stations for over a decade Manish sahu Lucknow, November 15 Nearly a decade after 50year-old Mohammad akhlaq was lynched by a mob over rumours of cow slaughter and storing its meat at his home in Dadri’sBisadavillage,theUttar Pradesh government has decided to withdraw the case against the accused. “Wefiledthewithdrawalapplication,issuedbythegovernment in connection with akhlaq ahmed’s case, before thecompetentcourtonOctober 15. The court has not yet passed any order on the application and has fixed December 12 for hearing the matter,” said Bhag SinghBhati,additionalDistrict Government Counsel (aDGC), Gautam Buddha Nagar. “It is for the court to decide whether the case will be withdrawn or not. Until then, the trial will continue. So far, the testimony of the first prosecution witness — the complainant and the deceased’s daughter, Shaista — is underway. Her cross-examination is yet to be done,” Bhati said. He Mohammad Akhlaq, 50, was lynched in 2015 also confirmed that all 15 accusedfacingtrialinthecaseare currently out on bail. Confirming the move, District Government Counsel (DGC), Gautam Buddha Nagar, Brahm Jeet Singh, said that after receiving the government’s letter regarding the withdrawalofakhlaq’scase,he forwarded it to the aDGC concernedforfilingtheappropriate application before the court. Defence counsel B r Sharma also confirmed that withdrawal application has been moved by the government counsel in the court. On September 28, 2015, a mob gathered outside akhlaq’s house after an announcement »contInued on pAge 2 Mohamed thaver Mumbai, November 15 SOMe MeMBerS of the terror group alleged to have carried out the blast near the red Fort in Delhi last week had been arrested prior to the blast, thanks to the local Nowgam police station of Jammu & Kashmir police that carried out good sleuthing work, scanning CCTV cameras after they saw posters ofaJaish-e-Mohammad(JeM)affiliated terror group put up in the area. This brought the police within striking distance of averting blasts being planned by terrorists with the seizure of explosives. While the role of the local policethanainthefightagainst terror has been realised over the years, Mumbai Police were one of the first — if not the first —thatrecognisedthepotential ofropinginlocalpolicestations in their fight against terrorism apart from specialised anti-terror agencies like the National Investigation agency (NIa) — set up in the aftermath of the 26/11 terror attacks — and the respective anti Terrorism Squads (aTS) of states. Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti told The Indian express, “We have anti Terror Cells (aTCs) at every police station for monitoring suspiciousactivitiesthattakeplace in their jurisdiction. Since local police stations are well-connected to people in their jurisdiction, they are better placed to get information at the local level.” years after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, the then Mumbai Police Joint »contInued on pAge 2 l IN vACANCIeS for SoMe BATTAlIoNS of The TerrITorIAl ArMy INfANTry hoMe & heArTh, SeCTIoN STreNgTh eArMArKeD for woMeN Another glass ceiling breaks: Women soldiers soon in Territorial Army Amrita nayak dutta for Jammu and Kashmir and three for the North-east, in 2004-05. IN a first-of-its-kind move, the In some of these Ta H&H army is planning to induct battalions, a section strengthof women soldiers in its Terri- vacancies has been earmarked torial army (Ta) battalions, for the induction of women aimed at gradually opening up candidates,amongthetotalvagreater opportunities for cancies, it is learnt. a section women in the force. usually comprises 10 soldiers. The Indian Express has This means a Ta H&H batlearnt thatthe Directalion, which has pagE 1 torate General of around 750 to 1,000 Territorial army resoldiers, will now leased additional vahave a section of cancies for 2025-2026 for the women soldiers. InfantryBattalions TaHome& Whilethisinitiativeinitially Hearth (H&H) last month. entails inducting a section according to the Ta web- strengthofwomensoldiersinto site,thereare11TaH&Hbattal- someoftheTaH&Hbattalions, ions,eightofwhichwereraised plans are to expand it to all Ta New Delhi, November 15 anchor H&H battalions and subsequentlyincreasetheirnumbers. The Ta H&H battalions, comprising the local population, have been raised in the northern and eastern theatres for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations. They assist the regular army and civil administration in multiple tasks, such as intelligencegathering,roadopening, and assistance in case of natural calamities, among others. as of today, women are not allowed to join core combat armsofthearmysuchasInfantry, armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry. Some of the combat support arms, such asCorpsofengineers,theregi- E. ExplainEd Why this matters A contingent of women Agniveers from the Corps of Military Police marched during the Army Day parade in January this year. exPReSS ment of artillery and Corps of Signals and all services, have womenofficers.OnlytheCorps of Military Police inducts women as soldiers. Thelatestdecisiontoinduct women soldiers into infantry battalions Ta (H&H) will allow Women are not allowed to join core combat arms such as Infantry, Armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry. Some combat support arms have women officers. Only the Corps of Military Police inducts women as soldiers. them to break yet another glass ceiling. The Ta is a citizen’s army of volunteers who willingly enrol in this arm to contribute to the nation’s defence. The Ta provides the volunteers an ideal opportunity to receive military training in their spare time and to serve the nation in times of national emergency and internal disturbances. In May this year, during OperationSindoor,theMinistryof Defence had announced activating 14 of 32 infantry battalions of the Territorial army for deploymentacrossthecountry until February 2028. Presently, the Ta has a strength of approximately 50,000 personnel comprising 65DepartmentalTaunits,such as railway, IOC, ONGC and Non-Departmental Ta units of InfantryBattalion(Ta),including Home & Hearth Battalions, ecological Battalion (Ta) affiliated to various Infantry regiments and engineer regiment (Ta) for maintenanceofline of Control Fencing. aCompositeecoTaskForce for the National Mission for Clean Ganga has also been raised. The eco Task Force is dedicated to the development, preservation andmaintenance of ecological balance and afforestation in difficult areas. Many celebrities, too, have either served or have been granted honorary ranks in the Ta, among them Nana Patekar, Mohanlal,KapilDev,MSDhoni, and abhinav Bindra.