The ideas Page: Five decades after emergency, difficult questions, unheeded warnings 11 THURsDAY, JUNE 25, 2026 JournaliSm of Courage luCknoW, laTE CITy, 16 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 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 E. Commerce Ministry: Both committed to balanced, commercially meaningful pact 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 PunjaB row oVer ‘Mann Video’ 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. key accused, 3 others in custody A mansion, wary neighbours: Building Police get custody of two in forensic report owner at centre of Lucknow fire probe inside case, no ‘labs’ at Delhi Manish sahu 18 LDA engineers fAce the heAt for and Haryana addresses LApses in buiLDing Lucknow, June 24 khamenei’s funeralnext month,iranian Presidentsends invitationtoPM In ThE densely populated Madehganj area of Lucknow stands the sprawling residence of businessman Virendra Prasad shukla (62), who is facing intense public scrutiny after authorities identified him as the co-owner of the Aliganj building where a devastating fireclaimed15livesonMonday. The tragedy has sent shockwaves across the state, turning abhImanyu hazarIka inside reguLAtions pAge 3 The house of the key accused, Virendra Prasad Shukla, in Lucknow’s Madehganj. ExprEss attention not only to the victims and their families but also to questions surrounding the ownershipandmanagementof the two-storey commercial building. besides shukla, the police have arrested three other Lucknow residents — ramkrishna »continued on PaGe 2 PahalGaM terror attack 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”. The screenshots indicate thepointswereplottedinamobileapp,“consistentwithcoordinatesbeingreceivedfromthe (Pakistan-based) handler sajid 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 mountainexpeditions,butwas The site of the Pahalgam attack where 26 people were killed on April 22, 2025. ap fIlE used by terrorists to share and track coordinates. Three terrorists — Faisal Jatt alias suleman, habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and hamza Afghani — were killed on July 28intheDachigamforestsnear srinagar. According to the nIA probe, the three visited a dhok (a mud hut constructed in the upper reaches of the Valley and used byshepherdsinthesummer)of localresidentParvaizAhmadon April 21. Parvaiz and his uncle, bashirAhmadJothad,standaccused of providing food and sheltertotheterroristsadaybefore the attack. “The analysis of the »continued on PaGe 2 pAges 7, 8 Cyberyaan Lab in Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, a cybersecurity training centre. 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 abhimanyu hazarika, sukhbir siwach & Varinder Bhatia New Delhi, Kharak Gagar (Jind), Chandigarh, June 24 TWo MEn arrested by Gurgaon Police in connection with an alleged attempt at bribery linked to a purported “objectionable” video of Punjab Chief Minister bhagwant Mann were remanded in eight days’ police custody on Wednesday. The two men were arrested after an individual named Jaspreet singh complained to police in haryana that two sen- ior Punjab Police officers had paid him rs 10 lakh to give a false report on the video. Chief Minister Mann has claimed that he is not the individual seen in the video. however, the Akal Takht has declared the clip “authentic” and declaredManntobeagainstthe Gurus and the Panth. The Gurgaon Police told a Gurgaon court that custody of the two accused, Arun Mahendru and Ankit bhardwaj, was needed to investigate the bribery allegation. “The accused are required »continued on PaGe 2 bengALremoves eggsfrom miD-DAymeAL, DrAWsoppfire 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 Lucknow