DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY DASTARDLY, COWARDLY ATTACK, SAYS OMAR Seven employees of infra company gunned down in Kashmir terror attack The workers were engaged in building tunnel on Srinagar-Sonamarg road Gagangir, BASHAARAT MASOOD INSIDE PM IN VARANASI: WILL BRING 1 LAKH YOUTH INTO POLITICS ODISHA BRACES FOR CYCLONIC STORM PAGES 8, 9 SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 20 SEVEN EMPLOYEES of an infrastructure company, including a doctorfromKashmir,werekilled in a terror attack on a camp housing workers near the Sonamarg health resort on the Srinagar-Leh national highway. Five employees were also injured in the attack. This is the first major attack in the Valley on construction workers of a large infrastructure project, and has taken place in a region that has witnessed little Ganderbal site of the attack Gund Srinagar-Leh Road Srinagar Pahalgam ornopresenceof militantsinthe last decade. Police sources said that on Sundayevening,suspectedmilitants opened fire on a camp set upbytheconstructioncompany, Security forces cordon off the site of the terror attack at Gagangir in Ganderbal district on Sunday. PTI which is building the Z-Morh tunnel near Gagangir on the Srinagar-Sonamargroad.Sources saidthemenwerehavingdinner when the attack took place. According to a J&K govern- BJP first off the block in Maharashtra: Fadnavis, Chavan daughter in list EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, OCTOBER 20 TAKING THE lead in announcing nominees for the November 20 Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the BJP on Sunday released its first list of 99 candidates, retaining 80 of its sitting MLAs. The party, which is likely to contest around 160 of the total 288seats,iscurrentlyengagedin tough bargaining with its ruling allies — Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-ledShivSenaandDeputy ChiefMinisterAjitPawar-ledNCP — for the rest of the seats. In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP had won 105 of the 164 seats it contested in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena. Prominent among those figuring in the BJP’s first list are DeputyChief MinisterDevendra `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 87 KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKES IN GAZA PAK SENATE CLEARS CONTROVERSIAL BILL PAGE 21 MORE BOMB THREATS TO AIRLINES Security personnel patrol after a flight made an emergency landing following an alleged bomb threat at the Jodhpur airport. At least 24 more flights received bomb threats, most from the same X account, on Sunday. PTI REPORTPAGE9 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE IN REMARKS that could trigger a fresh debate on population control, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu while expressing concern over ageing population in the southernstateshasurgedpeopleinhis state to have more children. He also said that his government is planning to bring in legislation to make only those with more thantwochildreneligibletocontest local body elections. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AS HE headed home to India after New Delhi rejected Ottawa’s allegations linking him to the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma said there was “mistrust” towards Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau andhisteam,thatKhalistanseparatists were being “being encouraged all the time” and were “deepassets”of theCanadianintelligence agency. Questioning the political independenceof theCanadianpolice, Verma, in an interview to CTV News aired Sunday, said Trudeau“destroyedtherelationship” with India. He also said “some G7 countries” have committed extrajudicial killings. Althoughhemaintainedthat the Canadians have not shared a NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 20 PAGE 6 ter Arjun Khotkar, who also announced his appointment as the party’s in-charge for the Assembly poll campaign in Jalna seat. “Pangarkar is a former Shiv NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 20 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A WEEK after Union Agriculture MinisterShivrajSinghChouhan’s decision to assign additional charge of Managing Director, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), toanAgricultureMinistryofficial, theAppointmentsCommitteeof E IndianHigh Commissioner SanjayKumar Verma Signalsnot ● endofties THE OUTGOING Indian High Commissioner has targeted Prime Minister Trudeau, the Canadian police and accused Canadian intelligence of using Khalistan separatists as assets. But like the Canadian envoy, he maintained that people-to-people and business ties should not be impacted. SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, OCTOBER 20 Thinkingof providing incentivesto familieswith morekids:CM “We are thinking of providing incentives to families with morechildren,encouragingcouples to have more children,” Naidu said Saturday after flagging off the resumption of constructionworkatAmaravatithat hadbeenhaltedundertheprevious government. “We have repealed the earlier law barring people with more than two children from contesting local body elections,” he said, referring to the August 7 state Cabinet decision. “We will bring in a new law to make only those with more than two children eligible to contest.’’ In many districts, Naidu said, villages had only elderly people as the younger generation migratedtootherpartsof thecountry and abroad. He said India’s average population growth has declined from 6.2 per cent in the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NAFEDisregisteredunder theMultiStateCo-operative SocietiesActandcomes underMinistryof Agriculture the Cabinet (ACC) entrusted chargeof theposttoanofficialof the Ministry of Cooperation. The ACC, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has Amit Shah, Union Minister of Home Affairs and Cooperation, as its only other ministerial member. It is responsible for appointing senior officials to key positions in the Central government,publicsectorundertakings CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 As trade gap with UAE, ASEAN widens, India pauses talks with others Naidu flags state’s ageing population, urges couples to have more children JUST TWO days after he joined MaharashtraCMEknathShindeled Shiv Sena, Shrikant Pangarkar, an accused in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, was Sunday removed from the party. Pangarkar was inducted into the Shinde Sena on Friday in the presence of former state minis- SHUBHAJIT ROY HARIKISHAN SHARMA ● JMM-Congress discord out in the open Shrikant Pangarkar got bail on September 4 As he left for India, Verma accused ‘some G7 countries’ of extrajudicial killings AddlchargetoShah-ledMinistrybyACC thathashimandPM ● MVA seat-sharing: Amid impasse, Sena, Cong call on Pawar Two days after joining Shinde Sena, Lankesh case accused removed MUMBAI, OCTOBER 20 Khalistan extremists Canada deep assets, Trudeau destroyed ties: Indian envoy NAFED post goes to Agriculture official, week later to Cooperation 2024 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD DECISION Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule. WhileFadnaviswillcontestfrom his traditional Nagpur South West constituency, Bawankule, ment official, the injured workers told them that two men came, snapped the electricity and opened fire at the camp. The employees are from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu, and include a safety managerandamechanicalmanager. The doctor, sources said, wasaresidentof Budgamincentral Kashmir. Out of the five injured workers, two are from Kashmir, two from Jammu, and one from Bihar. They have been shifted to SKIMS, Srinagar for specialised treatment. Seniorpoliceofficers,including Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat and Inspector Generalof PoliceKashmirVirdhi DELHI-OTTAWA ROW OVER NIJJAR KILLING EXPLAINED MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 24 PAGES RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 20 ‘US-India health partnership is vital to protect the world from future pandemics’ DR VIVEK MURTHY SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES PAGE 19 AFTER A series of free trade agreements (FTAs) that have proved more beneficial to partner countries, India is adopting a more cautious negotiating strategy,temporarilypausingtalksfor trade pacts with smaller countries such as Oman and Peru. The Commerce Ministry is working on developing a fresh Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) aimed at addressing the “lack of consistent and streamlined” procedures for negotiating future trade agreements. Thiscomesafterseveraltrade agreements, including the pact withtheUAEthatcameintoeffect inFebruary2022andtheonewith theAssociationofSoutheastAsian Nations(ASEAN)signedwayback in 2010, have resulted in significantly higher imports of goods compared to exports, and concerns over potential breaching of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Once upon a time in Surat: Hindustan, Pakistan & Kashmir Mohallas PAGE 1 ANCHOR KAMAAL SAIYED SURAT, OCTOBER 19 TILL ABOUT 20 years ago, residents of Ramnagar area in Surat — near the popular Rander area — would receive letters addressed to ‘Hindustan Mohalla’, ‘PakistanMohalla’,and‘Kashmir Mohalla’. Theoriginof thenamesdates back to 1947. Sindhi refugees who relocated to Surat from Bombay (which is now known asMumbai)—followingthepartition of India and Pakistan — wereassignedplotsinRamnagar on agricultural land, identified by revenue survey number 128. Thetotalsizeof thisplotwas500 bighas (around 140 acres). The government divided the landinto600plots—eachmeasuring 14 by 40 square feet. Tinshed structures were set up on these plots and were then allocated to Sindhi refugees from Pakistan. The first settlers of the Sindhi Colony decided to name their mohallas after they faced issues indescribingthelocationof their houses to friends, relatives, and others living in different cities becauseRamnagarwas“toobig” an area. To resolve this issue, the elders divided the Sindhi Colony into three parts: Hindustan Mohalla, located in the southern partandservingastheentrygate of the colony along the main Rander road; Pakistan Mohalla, situated in the northern part; and the central area was named Kashmir Mohalla. This division was largely an impromptu exercise. Surat was a bustling port city where vessels from 84 countries dropped anchor, and foreign travellers, including the Dutch, At the Hindustan Mohalla in the Sindhi Colony. KAMAAL SAIYED Portuguese, and British were welcomed. Additionally, Surat served as a centre for pilgrims travelling to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. And this is why a bridge over the Tapi River is called 'Makkai Pul'. Advocate Santkumar Vasumal Bachhani, 83, who resides with his grandchildren in a bungalow in the locality that he stillcallsPakistaniMohalla,says, "My father was from the Sindh province. After the partition, manycommunitymemberssettled in India. We followed suit and initially moved to Bombay before eventually relocating to Surat. Under the government's rehabilitation of displaced persons policy, the Sindhis who came to Surat were settled in Ramnagar." Pooj Surat Sindhi panchayat president and lawyer Vasudev Goplani, another senior citizen, says, "The Hindustan Mohalla has residential plots numbered from 1 to 340, while Kashmir Mohalla contains rooms numbered from 341 to 456, and Pakistan Mohalla has rooms numbered from 457 to 600. Since Hindustan Mohalla is located on the main road, the area developed rapidly." "People set up shops to earn a livelihood. As time passed, the tin shed structures were converted to pucca buildings, shops opened on the ground floor, and homes were on the first and second floors. The entire area in Hindustan Mohalla has now turned into a commercial-cumresidential areas. Similarly, houses also changed to pucca houses in Pakistan and Kashmir mohallas,” he adds. AstheSindhicommunityexpanded, large buildings were constructed, and a marketplace emerged in the Hindustan Mohalla, attracting shoppers from neighbouring areas. Additionally, two community CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Ahmedabad