eye MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899 THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Looking Out at Landour MUMBAI,LATECITY APRIL27,2025 Ruskin Bond on his new book, what keeps him writing 14+4PAGES,`6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA INDIA DISCUSSING NATURE OF STRIKE: TOP OFFICIALS After diplomatic steps, a range of retaliatory options on Govt table Since Pulwama in 2019, India has acquired capabilities to strike from within its borders A security personnel stands guard at the Dal Lake in Srinagar on Saturday. PTI RELATEDREPORTS,PAGE7 Crackdown gathers pace Pak trots out its familiar in Kashmir — from deep post-attack line: Open inside forests to Srinagar to any ‘neutral’ probe BASHAARAT MASOOD SRINAGAR, APRIL 26 THECRACKDOWNinthewakeof the Pahalgam terror attack gathered pace in Kashmir, with security forces conducting massive combingoperationsintheforests surrounding Pahalgam and the statepoliceintensifyingitscrackdown on suspected terror sympathisers across the Valley. After the homes of two local men suspected to be involved in the Pahalgam attack were demolished late Thursday night, theresidencesof fourmorehave been demolished in south Kashmir, also using explosives. Sources say the operations were intensified after Union HomeMinisterAmitShahasked security agencies to take tough measures to root out terrorists and their support structure. The National Investigation CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, APRIL 26 FACING DIPLOMATIC isolation andunderincreasingpressurein thewakeof thePahalgamattack, in the first response from Pakistan’s political establishment, its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday that Pakistan was “open to any neutral, transparent and credibleinvestigation”intotheattack. Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif This is the first “offer” from Islamabad and comes when India has underlined the “crossborder”linkstotheattackand,as The Indian Express reported, has CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 India and Pakistan will figure it out ‘one way or the other’: Trump SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, APRIL 26 DAYS AFTER US President Donald Trump said that the US stands strong with India against terrorism after the Pahalgam attack,hesaidFridaythatIndiaand Pakistan will figure a way out of thecurrentcrisisbetweenthemselves “one way or the other”. With his characteristic flourish, Trump said the two coun- 88 116 142 60 GUJARAT: 1,024 ‘BANGLADESHIS’ DETAINED PAGE 5 5 batches to travel through Uttarakhand, 10 through Sikkim tries have been fighting over Kashmir for “1,000 years”, and that border tensions have been simmering “1,500 years.” However,therewassomerelief inNewDelhisincehehasnot reiterated his offer to mediate which he had made in his first term. Onboard Air Force One en routetoRome,Trumpwasasked abouttensionbetweenIndiaand Pakistan in the wake of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD 8 KILLED, OVER 700 INJURED IN MASSIVE PORT BLAST IN IRAN VIRGINIA GIUFFRE, VOICE IN EPSTEIN SEX TRAFFICKING SCANDAL, DIES EXPRESS NETWORK ICHR EX-CHAIRMAN M G S NARAYANAN DIES AT 92 PAGE 5 batches, each consisting of 50 Yatris, are scheduled to travel through Uttarakhand State crossing over at Lipulekh Pass, and through Sikkim State crossingoveratNathuLaPass,respectively,” the ministry said. “The website at kmy.gov.in has been opened for acceptance of applications.TheYatriswillbe selected from among applicants through a fair, computer-generated, random and gender-balanced selection process.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED Negotiations for the yatra picked pace after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to China in January Archives Thaw after Modi-Xi ● meet THE THAW in October after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping is finally bearing fruit. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is first evidence of that. While other items in the wishlist are expected, Delhi would want the de-escalation and de-induction of troops to follow as well. Centre selects start-up Sarvam to build first homegrown AI model SOUMYARENDRA BARIK NEW DELHI, APRIL 26 THEGOVERNMENThasselected Bengaluru-based start-up Sarvamtobuildthecountry’sfirst indigenous artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) amidwavesmadebyChina’slow cost model DeepSeek. The startup,chosenfromamong67applicants, will receive support from thegovernmentintermsofcomputeresourcestobuildthemodel from scratch. Sarvam is the first start-up to get approved for sops under India’sambitiousRs10,370crore IndiaAIMissiontobuildamodel, with the government currently assessinghundredsof otherproposals. Sarvam said its model will be capable of reasoning, designed for voice, and fluent in Indian languages, and it will be ready for population-scale deployment. A senior official said in terms of governmentsupport,thecompany will receive access to 4,000 graphicsprocessingunits(GPUs) for six months for the company to build and train its model. The model is not expected to be open-sourced, but will be finetunedparticularlyforIndianlanguages. The GPUs will be provided to Sarvam by companies separately selected by the governmenttosetupAIdatacentres CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 U.S. REVERSES ABRUPT TERMINATION OF VISA REGISTRATION US President Donald Trump with his Ukraine counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the funeral of Pope Francis in Vatican on Saturday. AP RELATEDREPORTS,PAGE8 JAYPRAKASH S NAIDU RAIPUR, APRIL 26 FORSIXdaysnow,securityforces have surrounded and are tactfullyscalingBijapur’sKarregutta hills, which are as high as 700 metres and stretch around 20 kilometres along the TelanganaChhattisgarh border. It is here that they believe key members of the Maoist leadership are IN A significant step towards normalising India-China ties since the border standoff began in 2020, New Delhi announced on Saturday that it will resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra from June this year. The resumption of the yatra after a gap of five years is an important measure towards rebuilding the trust deficit that emergedsincetheborderstandoff in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in Galwan. This is the first move taken afterthedisengagementprocess was completed in eastern Ladakh, where 50,000 to 60,000 troops are still stationed along the India-China border. TheKailashMansarovarYatra was on top of India’s wishlist since the talks to normalise the tiesbeganinNovemberthisyear. On Saturday, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “Kailash Mansarovar Yatra organised by Ministry of External Affairs is set to take place during June to August 2025.” “This year, 5 batches, each consisting of 50 Yatris, and 10 PAGE 8 6 days and counting, 7,000 security personnel: taking on a Maoist battalion in hills of Bijapur 27/04/2025 India, China move to normalise ties, Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to resume in June after 5 years NEW DELHI, APRIL 26 NEW DELHI, APRIL 26 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PILGRIMAGE WAS SUSPENDED OVER PANDEMIC, BORDER STANDOFF SHUBHAJIT ROY LIZ MATHEW AS INDIA initiates a series of aggressive diplomatic measures such as suspension of the Indus WaterTreatyandthatofvisaservices for Pakistani nationals, the government is considering a range of retaliatory military options, including capabilities that allow New Delhi to strike back fromwithinthecountry’sborders. In a deadly terrorist attack TuesdayinPahalgam,amarquee tourist spot in Jammu and Kashmir, 26 people were killed. On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised retribution and said, “India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers” and would “pursue them to the ends of the earth”. A top source in the government told The Indian Express, “Therewillbemilitaryretaliation andweareprepared.Wearediscussingthenatureof thestrike… Since 2019, we have taken a series of measures to modernise our weapons. We have the option of targeting the terrorists from within our territory.” On February 14, 2019, a Jaishe-Muhammad terrorist rammed an explosives-laden car into a FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT The hill on the Bijapur-Telangana border. Express holed up, being safeguarded by Battalion 1, the most dangerous unit of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA). Officials said this push in Dandakaranya could be the “climax” of the relentless anti-Naxal operationsthatbeganin2024and havesofarledtothekillingof363 Maoists and the “squeezing” of the Maoist leadership to the hills. “The location was earlier CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘I couldn’t believe it’: F-1 status of some Indian students restored Records purged over ‘minor’ violations now back but uncertainty remains for many who are stuck abroad VIDHEESHA KUNTAMALLA NEW DELHI, APRIL 26 ITWAS3aminAtlantaonFriday, the 20-year-old student from Bengaluru recalls, when the good news came. His status as an F-1 student had been in limbo since April 4 when his record on SEVIS — the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a US gov- ernmentdatabasethattracksinternational students — was terminated following a drunk driving charge that had not led to a conviction. He was preparing to file a lawsuit when, on April 24, his status on the SEVIS portal showed “active” again. “Icouldn'tbelieveit.Iwasjust about to file (the lawsuit). And thenitgotreactivated.Noreason given,” said the third-year engineeringstudent.“Fornow,I’mrelieved…butI’mstillscared.If this hadn’thappened,Iwouldprobably have had to leave everything midway and go back home.” Across the US, several Indian students, whose SEVIS records wererecentlyterminated—over minor infractions like speeding tickets or dismissed misdemeanours — have seen their statuses re-instated in the last 48 hours. In some cases, this happened even without filing lawsuits. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Love for violin, Hawaiian shirts: Meet Goa teen making waves in chess world PAGE 1 ANCHOR AMIT KAMATH MUMBAI, APRIL 26 ATLASTweek’sGrenkeFreestyle Chess Open 2025 in Germany, another young Indian chess player made waves. Leon Luke Mendonca, 19, defeated topranked players Ian Nepomniachtchi and Richard Rapport and drew against other reputed Grandmasters like Alexey Sarana, Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The tournament hosted in the German city of Karlsruhe saw Leon take the 10th spot in a field of 297 players. Of these, 31 players started the event with a better rating than the ever-smiling, violin-playing boy from Goa with a penchant for Hawaiian shirts and attacking play. ForLeon,whobecameIndia’s 67th Grandmaster in 2020, momentsunderthebrightarclights on the global stage have been limited. His rise, after all, coincided with India discovering its goldengenerationwithstarslike world champion D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi. Unlike a Gukesh or a Pragg, who hail from chess-loving Chennai,Leontookhisfirststeps in the sport in the small town of Saligao in Goa. But his rise is also testament to the fact that the sport is spreading fast in India, at outposts away from the traditional centres. Before Leon, Goa had one more Grandmaster — Anurag Mhamal. “Therewasnocultureofchess in Goa compared to a city like Leon Luke Mendonca is being mentored by Vishnu Prasanna, who shaped the career of Gukesh. Jurriaan Hoefsmit/ Tata Steel Chess ChennaiwhenIstartedoutatthe age of six. My first breakthrough was when I won a bronze medal in the World Youth Championship back in 2014 when I was eight. That’s when my parents had to make some big decisions. My dad left his job to travel with mefortournaments.Thatwasnot a simple decision,” Leon told The Indian Express. The increasingly popular 'freestyle' format of chess is the modern-dayversionof thesport that encourages players to be intuitive and sharp. “This variant is the best thing, this is the future of chess.Thisforcesplayerstofocus on their own skills rather than memorising opening theory,” Leon would say after his win over Nepomniachtchi. Close look at the games he played at the tournament gives an idea about Leon's stunning show. Nepomniachtchi held an advantageof 114ratingpointson the Indian and was yet forced to resign in 36 moves. In the next round,RichardRapport,rated79 rating points ahead of Leon, was handed defeat in 35 moves. In his nine games, he lost just once. Leon’sfirstmotivationtoplay the sport was not too different from the greatest chess player ever — the Norwegian star Magnus Carlsen. They both wantedtobeattheireldersisters. “HissisterBeverlywasfirstgiven a chess set as a gift, that’s when wesenthertoaclasstogetcoaching. She would then teach Leon, who was just around four or five at that time, what she had learnt at the class that day. That’s how he started,” said father Lyndon. Evenashissistersoonmoved onto otherpursuits,Leon wasso enamoured by the sport that he CONTINUED ON PAGE 2