The ideas Page: Five decades after emergency, difficult questions, unheeded warnings 9 ThURsDAY, JUNE 25, 2026 JournaliSm of Courage KolKATA, lATE CITy, 16 PAGEs ₹6.00 (₹12 in North East states, ₹20 in Andaman) 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 Happening today lEXTERNAl AffAIRS MINISTERs Jaishankar and his south Korean counterpart Cho Hyun are set to meet at the Jeju forum for Peace and Prosperity. lSUPREME COURT is sched- uled to hear a plea of actor Jacqueline fernandez against a delhi court order to frame charges against her in a rs 200crore money laundering case. lINDIA TAKE on Bangladesh in a crucial Women’s T20 World Cup Group A clash. TRACk TheSe AND MoRe oN www.IndIanexpress.com business as usual By EP UNNY EXPECT TIES TO MOvE TO A hIGhER lEvEl: GREER AT END Of TwO DAyS Of NEGOTIATIONS Market access to non-tariff barriers: India, US review trade core elements Ravi Dutta Mishra New Delhi, June 24 INDIa aND the uS Wednesday wrapped up two days of negotiationsoverabilateraltradedeal and Delhi said there had been “a comprehensive review” of core elements including “enhanced market access, digital trade, supply chain resilience, reductionofnon-tariffbarriers, and expanded cooperation in strategic sectors”. The uS trade delegation was led by united States Trade representative (uSTr) Jamieson Greer. The negotiations took place a month before Washington is expected to come out with a new tariffs architecture under Section 301 of the uS Trade act to replace reciprocal tariffs deemed illegal by the uS Supreme Court in February this year. an industry source said »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAhAlGAM TERROR ATTACK Khamenei’s funeralnext month,Iranian Presidentsends invitationtoPM PM Narendra Modi with Iranian Supreme National Security Council Deputy Secretary Ghadir Nezamipour. X/@IrAN_IN_INdIA Divya A New Delhi, June 24 aS IraN prepares for a multicity state funeral for Supreme leader ayatollah ali Khamenei, who was killed in a uSIsraeli air strike on Tehran on February28,PresidentMasoud Pezeshkian has sent a formal invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the funeral next month. Sources said the formal invitation, on behalf of Pezeshkian,wassenttotheMinistryof externalaffairsTuesdaybythe Iranian embassy in New Delhi. Theysaidtheembassyreceived the formal note from Tehran two days ago. Khamenei’s funeral proceedings will begin in Tehran on July 4, and he will be laid to rest in his home town of Mashhad on July 9. The burial was initially scheduled for March but postponed in view of the conflict raging then. There is no official word yet on who will be representing India at the funeral. Sources said a multi-nation visit by the Prime Minister is planned around the same dates. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E. Commerce Ministry: Both committed to balanced, commercially meaningful pact Plan was in motion week before attack, terrorists used app to log coordinates: NIA Data analysis of two cellphones reveals photos of terrorists, chats with handler Naveed Iqbal Srinagar, June 24 The PlaN to attack tourists at BaisaranvalleyinKashmir’sPahalgamwasactivearoundapril 15lastyear,asperdigitalrecords recovered from terrorists killed after the attack. This revelation, The Indian Express has learnt, figuresintheNationalInvestigationagencychargesheetfiledin connection with the april 22, 2025attackwhichleft25tourists and a local ponywallah dead. The agency’s probe, it is learnt, notes that the phone of a terroristkilledduring‘operation Mahadev’ in the Srinagar area onJuly28,2025,“containedtwo mapscreenshotstime-stamped april 15 and 16, depicting locations near Baisaran”. Thescreenshotsindicatethe points were plotted in a mobile app, “consistent with coordinates being received from the (Pakistan-based) handler Sajid explaIned what’s taking time Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in New Delhi. @fINMININdIA Bilateral trade deal negotiations have been slow due to differences over high tariffs, agricultural market access, e-commerce regulations and India’s pushback against US pressure on its energy and defence ties with Russia. The two sides are trying to secure a working deal before next month’s US tariff deadline. Eggs off Bengal mid-day meals: BJP govt draws fire over ‘vegetarian menu’ TMC says BJP undermining state’s ‘food culture’; teachers raise nutrition concern Sweety Kumari Kolkata, June 24 The overhaul of the midday meal scheme in West Bengal, announced by Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta while presenting the Suvendu adhikari-ledBJPgovernment's first Budget in the assembly Monday, has triggered a storm, with the opposition accusing InsIde The BJP government, led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has rejected the charges. PTI the government of imposing vegetarianism on school students over its proposal to partner with ISKCoN to providecookedmealsunderapilot project that would drop eggs from the menu. The government has howeversignificantlyincreasedthe material allocation per student under the mid-day meal scheme, proposing to roll out theISKCoN-cookedvegetarian mealsinschoolsacrosstheKolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) area. While the BJP has »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 paGes 6,7 The site of the Pahalgam attack where 26 people were killed on April 22, 2025. AP fIlE Jatt”, the NIa is learnt to have said. “These timestamps show the conspiracy was live at least from april 15 onwards.” The GPS-based mobile app in question is used for hiking and mountain expeditions, but was used by terrorists to share and track coordinates. Threeterrorists—FaisalJatt alias Suleman, habeeb Tahir aliasJibran,andhamzaafghani — were killed on July 28 in the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘mannvideo’: GurGaonpolice Getcustodyof2 inforensiccase mankilledin mumbailocal trainafterrow overopendoor Missing records, Africa assets, MD salary Rs 17,000: Rajesh Exports under ED lens After searches in two cities, agency claims gold exporter’s trade transactions opaque Deeptiman Tiwary New Delhi, June 24 aBSeNT reCorDS of foreign transactions, a purported rs1,035-croreinvestmentinafrican mines with no supporting documents, a 40% mismatch between gold stocks found duringsearchesandthoserecorded incompanyregisters.PlusaCFo who has allegedly not drawn a salary since 2020 and a Manag- ingDirectorpaidjustrs17,000a month despite the company’s reported revenues of rs 7.7 lakh crore.andsuspectedsiphoning of over rs 600 crore through allegedsharemanipulationinvolving NrI benamidars. These are among the preliminary findings cited by the enforcement Directorate (eD) following search and seizure operations at nine premises linked to rajesh exports ltd in Bengaluru and Mumbai under theForeignexchangeManagement act (FeMa), 1999. In a statement issued Wednesday, the eD said its ongoing investigation into the gold exporter had uncovered multiple suspectedcontraventionsrelating to overseas transactions, stock holdings and share dealings, and that various documents and digital evidence had beenseizedduringthesearches. The agency even questionedtheremunerationstructure of key managerial personnel, saying it appeared »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l GeT SMAll ThINGS RIGhT, ReVISIT MATTeRS WhICh MAy SeeM RoUTINe, he SAyS IN NoTe To SeCReTARIeS Cab Secy’s poser: Do we want 30-yr service experience or just one repeated 30 times? Damini Nath New Delhi, June 24 IN a two-page note sent to all Secretaries to the Government of India, accompanied by a 10page guide on how to conduct meetings,CabinetSecretaryTv Somanathan has said that if theyjustfollow“abeatentrack”, the question they may face at the end of their service is: did theyget“30years’experienceor one year’s experience repeated 30 times”. The note, sent on June 12, underlined the need to improve each year, to get the “small things” right, and to “pause and revisit” matters which may seem “routine”. Somanathan also asked the Secretaries to circulate the guide on holding effective meetings, drawn up by the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), to all civil servants. he said the Cabinet Secretariat, along with the NCGG, would circulate similar Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan. EXPrEss fIlE guides on various topics. The conduct of meetings was chosen as the first topic as meetingstakeupalotoftimein an officer’s day, he wrote. “Many officers have told me that many of our meetings tend tostartlate,beoverstretchedand directionless,andoftenleadtono tangible‘takeaways’,"hewrote. TheCabinetSecretarywrote that several middle-ranking officers had told him that they were happy with the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata Rescue workers at the site of the collapse Wednesday night. ANI 20 RESCUED AlIvE, hOSPITAlISED 5 labourers killed as roof of warehouse collapses in Kolkata, race on to save those trapped in rubble At least 18 feared trapped; rescue op continues in night Sweety Kumari & Ravik Bhattacharya Kolkata, June 24 FIve laBourerS were killed and 20 others injured after the roof of an under-construction warehouse caved in on Wednesday afternoon in Kolkata’s Taratala area. rescue operations by the army and NDrF stretched till late in the night to bring out those trapped under the rubble. at least 18 people are feared to be trapped inside. The warehouse was being constructed by Behera Brothers, which had got the lease from the Syama Prasad InsIde paGe 3 Govt suspends construction work till July, orders audit Mookerjee Port authority. In a statement, the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port authority said it had granted a 30-year lease to M/s Behera Brothers witheffectfromaugust1,2024, for approximately 6,689 square metresoflandtosetupamultistoried warehouse and cold storage facility. By evening, Kolkata Police said an FIr has been registered against the owners and three persons, including a project supervisor and two labour suppliers, were arrested. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2