DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ENCOUNTER IN DANTEWADA PRO-IMRAN PROTESTS ROIL PAK 28 Maoists shot dead in forests of Chhattisgarh Jaishankar will go to Buch, other officials on October 24 Pak for SCO meeting, first visit by EAM since LIZ MATHEW Sushma Swaraj 9 yrs ago Raipur CHHATTISGARH Narayanpur Site of the encounter JAYPRAKASH S NAIDU RAIPUR, OCTOBER 4 IN ONE of the largest such operations in Chhattisgarh’s 24-year history, at least 28 Maoists were gunned down by security forces in an encounter in Dantewada district of the Abujhmad region on Friday, police said. Dantewada Sukma ODISHA According to officers, the encounter took place after around 1,000 personnel from the Special NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 4 Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG) from Dantewada and Narayanpur set out on an operation, acting on specific intelligence inputs on the presence of Maoists. The STF and DRG are specialised forces to target Left Wing Extremism in Chhattisgarh. On the operation that began Thursday afternoon, a senior police officer told The Indian Express, “We had information on the presence of 50-odd Maoists in the area from the East Bastar division of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoists) and Company No. 6 of their armed EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Minister S Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation to Pakistan for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of Government on October 1516, the Ministry of External Affairs said Friday. In August this year, Pakistan, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the SCO CHG, said it had extended invitations to all heads of government of the SCO member states, including CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Now bulldozers ‘with love’: Congress takes a unique ride in the race for riot-hit Nuh SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 4 EXPLAINED STF, DRG teams acted on intel about presence of Maoists: Police The chill ● in ties PAKISTAN DOWNGRADED ties with India in 2019 following the abrogation of Article 370 that ended J&K’s special status. India has said it desires normal relations with Pakistan but the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such an engagement. Prime suspect in murder of Amethi family held, police say he knew teacher’s wife MANISH SAHU AMETHI, OCTOBER 4 DECISION AISWARYA RAJ NUH, OCTOBER 4 TWO BULLDOZERS stand on either side of the Delhi-Alwar road, their arms outstretched. As people below mill for a rally of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the arms move up and down, showering them with petals. The five boys dropping the petals in fistfuls from atop the bulldozer are cheered lustily by the crowd. A little over a year after bulldozers rolled into Nuh town as The incredible arc of a Dalit scholar: Slums of Yerwada to MacArthur fellowship Shailaja Paik is a history professor at University of Cincinnati DIPANITA NATH PUNE, OCTOBER 4 A ONE-ROOM house in Siddharth Nagar in Pune’s Yerwada, with its blue corrugated roof propped up by wooden poles, may just be the symbol of Dalit resilience. This is where historian Shailaja Paik, 50, spent her childhood with her parents and three sisters, navigating a journey of poverty and caste and gender discrimination, before ending up as one of the most promising names in Dalit studies and the winner of this year’s MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship. The $8,00,000 fellowship is a five-year grant awarded to people who show “exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future”. Candidates do not apply for the fellowship but are nominated. “I started my journey in the slums of Yerwada. It has taken all my life to get here, where I am the only Dalit woman to be a full and distinguished research professor in South Asian Studies in the Western academia. Why is it that many Dalits, and especially Dalit women, have been CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY 2024 Haryana votes today Total seats Candidates 90 1,031 ■ 17 Seats Reserved for SC ■ Total 100 women Assembly Results in 2019 40 BJP 31 10 9 INC JJP Others Turnout in 2019: 68.31% part ofBJP government action following riots that left six dead, the machines returned in the Haryana Assembly elections as part of the Opposition’s campaign — with the Congress underlining that “the tools of hate” in BJP hands DECISION were “messengers 2024 HARYANA of love” in its. Riots had broken out in Nuh on July 31, 2023, during a VHP ‘Brajmandal Yatra’, leaving six, including two CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAC summons SEBI chief Madhabi POLICE IN Uttar Pradesh Friday arrested the prime suspect in the murder of a family of four in Amethi, claiming that he had been in a relationship with one of the people he killed. The victims, 37-year-old teacher Sunil Kumar, his wife Poonam Bharti (32) and their minor daughters, aged five and two, were found shot inside their house in Amethi on Thursday night. The killings have sparked a political controversy in the state, with Opposition parties Police outside the residence in Amethi on Thursday. PTI questioning the government over law and order. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE PUBLIC Accounts Committee (PAC), the parliamentary watchdog for government spending, has asked Securities and Exchange Board of India Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson of SEBI (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and other officials to appear before it on October 24. While they have been asked to appear for recording evidence on the overall performance of the regulatory body, the PAC, sources said, will ask questions related to the allegations levelled against Buch by US-based CONTINUED ON PAGE 2