The Editorial Page: Lower tariff is good news, but with the US, beware of backsliding 8 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 20 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 SHIA mOSqUE TARGETED Islamabad suicide attack leaves31dead, 169 injured INDIA WIN SIxTH U19 WORlD CUP TITlE, DEfEAT ENGlAND bY 100 RUNS Future perfect New Delhi condoles loss of life, denies Pak charge of involvement in blast Sajjad Hussain Islamabad, February 6 ATLEAST31peoplewerekilled and 169 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in Pakistan’s capital, officials said, in one of the worst terror attacks targeting thecommunityinrecentyears. The powerful explosion, which was heard from a far distance, took place at Khadijah alKubra mosque-cum-imambargah in the Tarlai area of Islamabad, police said. The suicide bomber was stopped at the gate of the imambargah,buthedetonated himself, police and eyewitnesses said. IslamabadDeputyCommissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon confirmedthatatleast31people have been killed and 169 others injured,someofthemcritically. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Relatives of those killed at the mosque in Islamabad. PTI E. India Under-19 players celebrate after defeating England in the World Cup final at the Harare Sports Club in Zimbabwe on Friday. X/@BCCI ExPlAINED Sectarian target Friday’s attack was the deadliest suicide bombing in Islamabad in recent years. The Shias, who are in minority in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, have been targeted in sectarian violence in the past, including by Islamic State and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. 43 years after Kapil Dev’s, another 175: Sooryavanshi’s 15 sixes, 15 fours power India to record total of 411 runs Sandip G New Delhi, February 6 VAIBHAV SOORYAVANSHI’S name loomed large on the 2026 U19 World Cup, and there was littleuntilthefinaltojustifythat topbilling.Theninaspaceof80 ballshefacedinthefinalagainst England,andinsideof25overs, the teen wonder stamped a defining seal on the event, hitting 15 sixes and 15 fours for an aweinspiring 175 that nobody who watched or heard of, will be allowed to forget. The 14-yearoldprovedthathewaseverybit the hype at Harare. His flying start took India to 411, a U19 knock-out game record.Englandwouldmakeavaliant attempt, their No.5 batsman Caleb Falconer would score a 67-ball 115 but that was too little, too late. England would fall 100 runs short as »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ThE BIg PICTURE The Batch of 2026 PAGE 14 Digital fraud cases: RBI plans compensation up to Rs 25,000 even if victim shares OTP George mathew & Hitesh Vyas Mumbai, February 6 THE RESERVE Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to compensateuptoRs25,000percasefor losses arising from small-value fraudulent transactions. Closeto65percentoffrauds involve amounts less than Rs50,000,andcustomerswillbe eligible to get pay-outs in fraud cases even if they have shared a one-time password (OTP). “It is proposed to introduce a framework to compensate customers up to Rs 25,000 for loss incurred in small-value fraudulent transactions,” RBI GovernorSanjayMalhotrasaid. “As long as they are defrauded, whetherontheirownaccordor anyone’s accord, no questions asked, and Rs 25,000 or 85 per cent (of the loss amount)…we will compensate them as long asitisunintendedandtheylost that money,” he said. A customer will be able to avail this benefit once in a »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 happening ACCUSED WAS TRIED AS AN ADUlT today Student who stabbed another to death lPRImE mINISTER NARENDRA Modi will begin a two-day visit to Malaysia. He is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim and also interact with the diaspora as well as industry and business representatives. lINDIA’S T20 WORlD CUP campaign gets underway at the iconic Wankhede Stadium as they take on USA in a Group A clash. The 2024 champions, led by Suryakumar Yadav, are seeking to become the first side to win back-to-back World T20 titles. Match starts at 7.00 pm. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm Business as Usual By EP UNNY at Gujarat school in 2018 gets life term Aditi Raja Vadodara, February 6 A SPECIAL Court in Vadodara on Thursday sentenced a Child in Conflict with Law (CCL) to life imprisonment for stabbingtodeatha14-year-old student inside the toilet of a primary school in Vadodara city in June 2018. The CCL, who was a student aged 16 years and six monthsonthedateoftheincident, was tried as an adult after the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) transferred the case to the Children's Court following preliminary assessment. As per the case of the prosecution,theincidentoccurred on June 22, 2018, when the CCL stabbed to death the 14year-old boy in a toilet at the primary school. As per the prosecution case, the CCL was seen in CCTV footage, emerging from the toilet with a knife in his hand, a brown bag and Scan to watch the magic unfold! blood-soakedclothesrightbehind two other students, who were seen running out of the toilet in panic seconds earlier. Theprosecution,whichexamined 20 witnesses, also submitted that the CCL had been rebuked by a teacher two days prior to the said incident and had “premeditated the attack on a fellow student in vengeance.” [against the school authorities] Asperthefactsputforthby »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2020-24: MoD cleared 35 books, Gen Naravane’s only one pending Ritu Sarin New Delhi, February 6 FORMER ARMY chief General M M Naravane’s memoir, Four StarsofDestiny,citedbyLeader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in his criticism of the Government, stands out as an outlier intheMinistryofDefence’srecord of clearing books by retired military personnel. Overafive-yearperiodfrom 2020 to 2024, Gen Naravane’s book is the only manuscript YOur rIGhT to know AN EXPRESS RTI APPLICATION still pending clearance by the Ministry, despite dozens having moved through the process and been approved. InaresponsedatedSeptember 17, 2024, to a Right to Information application filed by The Indian Express in January that year, the Ministry of Defence’s Army unit said that 35 book titles had come before it for approval since 2020. Of these, only three were listed as not yet cleared — one of them being General Naravane’s memoir. TheIndianExpress had first reported on the review of Gen Naravane’s book on January 5, 2024. Neither the Ministry of Defence nor the publisher, Penguin Random House, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l 8 ARRESTED, FIVE GYMS SEALED, FITNESS CENTRES ACROSS DISTRICT EMPTYING OUT Few complainants, but ‘conversion net’ probe deals Mirzapur gyms a body blow manish Sahu temples, and far removed from the gritty Amazon Prime web seriesinitsname,thesmalltown HE WON the title of ‘Mr Mirza- of Mirzapur located along the pur’ in 2019, and ‘Mr Purvan- Ganga only recently saw the fitchal’ in 2022, his impressive ness wave wash up to its corner, bodybuilding skills making a leading to opening up of seven gym trainer’s job a fitness centres in the PAGE 1 natural fit for him. past two years alone, Now, Faizal taking the total to 17, Khan, 34, has as per one estimate. another tag: an acInthewakeofthe cused in an alleged conversion charges against owners and racket which, police claim, was trainersofthefivegyms,fitness being run from five gyms centres across Mirzapur are across the town. emptying out, especially of Known for its carpets and its women, say the owners. Mirzapur, February 6 anchor The five gyms sealed include three of KGN, considered the biggest fitness centre chain in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district. EXPRESS Police have arrested eight members of the “gang” allegedly involved in harassing, blackmailing and pressuring women gym trainees into BISCUITS »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad