The editorial Page: Before rebuilding Delhi, a warning from Gurugram 8 WEDnESDay, auGuSt 26, 2026 JournAlisM of CourAGe AhMEdAbAd, lATE cITy, 20 PAgES ₹5.00 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 lMinister of State for Exter- nal Affairs Pabitra Margherita will embark on a three-nation tour starting with Vietnam to deepen engagement in East Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com business as usual By EP unny WiLL Be VisitinG inDiA After 7 YeArs AMiD efforts to restore ties Xi likely to attend BRICS in Delhi next month with large delegation Beijing’s advance team arrives to prepare the ground for visit shubhajit roy New Delhi, August 25 cHiNesepresiDeNTXiJinping is likely to attend the summit of Brics leaders in New Delhi on september 12 and 13, The Indian Express has learnt. He last visited india in october 2019,monthsbeforeplAincursions along the line of Actual control in eastern ladakh triggered a military standoff between the two countries. it is learnt that the chinese sidehasconveyedtoNewDelhi that Xi is likely to come for the the big picture E. In Beijing, Doval and Wang look to ‘make progress on boundary delimitation’ explained the steps taken Although troops are still massed along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, India and China have been taking a series of steps to restore ties that took a hit following Chinese incursions. These include direct flights, resumption of visas, easing of curbs on Chinese firms, revival of the pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar. leaders’ summit. An advance team from china has arrived forthesecurityandprotocolarrangements to prepare for the president’s possible visit. »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 shubhajit roy New Delhi, August 25 nsa ajit doval with chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing, Tuesday. PTI NATioNAlsecuriTYAdvisor Ajit Doval and chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who are the special representatives of their countries on the boundary issue,heldtalksinBeijingTuesday and the indian embassy latersaidtheydiscussedwaysto “make progress on boundary delimitation”while“sustaining theongoingworkontransboundary cooperation”. Before his talks with Wang, Doval met chinese Vice president Han Zheng and china said it urged india to view and handle their relationship from a “strategic and long-term perspective” and “properly manage differences”. india, on its part, said Doval and Han discussed ways to strengthen peace and tranquillity in the border areas and further improve bilateral relations. A long part of Han’s career wasspentinshanghai,underXi Jinping, and he was cpc secretary of shanghai during 20122017.Heisconsideredamember ofthepowerfulshanghaiclique. »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 inside the army’s paralympic node page 13 the world page 15 iran vowS to reSiSt wiDeneD SanctionS, SayS u.S. SeekS talkS 2 Indian ships among 45 blacklisted by Iran for Hormuz ‘violations’ sukalp sharma New Delhi, August 25 TWo sHips owned and operatedbyindia-basedentitiesfeature on the list of 45 “non-compliant” vessels issued by iran’s persian Gulf strait Authority (pGsA) for allegedly violating terms set by Tehran for transiting the strait of Hormuz. The Indian Express analysed the ownership and management records of the blacklistedvesselslistedbythepGsA on sunday. The two indian vessels on the list are lNG (liquefied natural gas) tanker Disha and bulk carrier Maha Roos, as per the analysis. Apart from these two, some of the other ships have a history of transportingcargo,particularly energy, to india. Many of the vessels are linked to uAe-based entities, particularly the Abu Dhabi National oil company (ADNoc) group.Apartfromindia,vessels linkedtoentitiesbasedincountries like saudi Arabia, Qatar, Greece,theNetherlands,south Korea, singapore and Norway are also on the list. A pakistanflagged crude oil tanker is among those blacklisted. some of these vessels had »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 Violence took place on ram navami, april 10, 2022 1 person killed 24 injured, including the district SP 16 houses and 29 shops demolished by administration in the aftermath 175 people arrested in initial police action hasina Fakhroo’s house built under PmaY (Urban) was demolished. AnAnd MohAn J the hold-up all acquitted Anand Mohan J Khargone, August 25 oNJulY27,aMadhyapradesh sessions court acquitted 11 men accused in the 2022 Khargone ram Navami violence that left more than two dozen people, including Khargone superintendent of police siddharth choudhary, injured, and one dead. in the wake of the clashes, the administration razed 16 housesintheaffectedlocalities, The woman told the court that she wished to return to her partner and that her decision was being made “voluntarily, without force or coercion”. FIlE »ContinUeD on PAGe 4 Fouryearslater,notmuchheadway l being recorded Vadodara, August 25 tection home in Kutch. Theyfoughttogetbackwith each other, and the journey went through police stations, lawyers, and the judiciary. The male partner moved the Gujarat High court with a habeas We are facing difficulty as names of accused generic without father’s name or address: Inspector supervising riot cases 65 FIrs 4 closed for 85 accused yet to be found 38 under investigation want of evidence 20 at stage of evidence 3 trials completed, 23 cases awaiting Aditi raja THeY HAD once lived as neighbours in the same society in Kutch. They belonged to differentfaiths,buttheyfellhopelessly in love. so they decided to sign a live-in relationship agreement – more on this later – and to begin building a life together, away from their homes and families. she was 21 years old and was completing her graduation; he was 23, and worked as a driver. Thencamethe‘missingperson’ complaint, the intervention by police, and the couple’s forced separation. The woman was placed in a women’s pro- khargone violence trials: acquittals, dead ends and failing evidence the cases Pregnant & separated from live-in partner, Gujarat HC steps in to reunite inter-faith couple the courage run express special Patna Protest Police use water cannons to disperse protesters during a march demanding a rollback of a proposed two-tier format for BPsc teachers’ recruitment exam, in Patna on Tuesday. AnI rePorT, page 12 In Surat, a fish market names itself after Modi, triggers a row gujarat pageS 3, 4 New Delhi, August 25 40 SchoolkiDS reScueD from burning buS in morbi The market was inaugurated monday; board was later covered. ExPrESS sampada Yojana, this is the city's first municipal corporation-run wholesale fish market and can accommodate 80 outlets. Theinauguration,however, saw a verbal duel between some members of the association and surendra lashkari, a member and a fish trader who has a plot in the market. “This »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 ‘Death, or life in jail’: State SeekS harSh penalty for navratri gangrape convictS »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 31 lakh of 38 lakh appeals against name inclusion in rolls: Lawyer for petitioners Surat, August 25 A proposAltonameawholesale fish market in surat after prime Minister Narendra Modi has run into trouble after some fish traders opposed the plan. The surat Fish Merchant Association inaugurated the market on Monday, naming it 'shree Narendra Modi Wholesale Fish Market' with a picture of the prime Minister on the banner. Following opposition from a section of the association’s members, the banner was covered with a white sheet on Tuesday. Built with assistance from the pradhan Mantri Matsya linking these to irregularities, and 65 cases were registered. Then chief Minister shivraj chouhan vowed, “There is no place for rioters on the soil of Madhya pradesh… They will not be released. strictest action will be taken against them.” Four years later, the cases arecollapsingonebyone,orare stuck without headway, an investigation into court records by The Indian Express reveals. The only three riot cases to Furnish detailed break-up of appeals before Bengal SIR tribunals: SC to EC Ananthakrishnan G Kamal saiyed forensic reports THesupreMecourtTuesday askedtheelectioncommission of india to furnish a detailed break-up of appeals before the appellate tribunals constituted to adjudicate cases of those wrongfully excluded or includedintheWestBengalvoter list following the special intensive revision (sir) exercise. it sought details of the total numberofcasespending,cases decided, appeals for inclusion and appeals for exclusion. Meanwhile,petitionerswho have challenged the sir process told a three-judge bench led by chief Justice of india surya Kant that a reply under the right to information Act (rTi)Actshowedthatof“about 83,000” appeals decided by the tribunals, 75,443 had been restored in the electoral rolls. The bench, which included Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, sought to knowwhatconsequentialsteps were being taken for updating the electoral rolls pursuant to the orders allowing appeals. seniorAdvocateGopalsankaranarayanan, appearing for someofthepetitioners,toldthe courtthattherTireplygivento a Member of parliament “makes absolutely appalling reading”. “This is the appellate tribunal report as on August 7. The »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 l anaYa Bangar UnderWenT gender-aFFirming sUrgerY in march, saYs Bcci did noT resPond To her qUeries ‘Great day’: Mumbai trans player gets nod for women community cricket in Australia Devendra Pandey Anaya, whose father sanjay Bangar is a former india allrounder and was also the batForMer MuMBAi under-19 ting coach of the men’s team, cricketer Anaya Bangar, who earlierplayedage-groupcricket underwent a gender-affirming for Mumbai alongside Testsurgery in March this year, has capped sarfaraz Khan and his received clearance to play brother Musheer Khan. women’scommunitycricketin Anaya said she wrote to the Australia. Board of control for cricket in “it is a great day for me, es- india (Bcci) last year to check pecially after knowabout eligibility ing the fact that i can criteria for trans athpage 1 play cricket. There letes but has not rewas a stage when i ceived a reply yet. thought i would in June this year, never play cricket again, but she reached out to cricket Austhanks to cricket Australia, it tralia. in its reply sent on July has given me another chance,” 20,cricketAustraliatoldAnaya Anaya, now 25 years old, told that while she could start playThe Indian Express. ing community cricket imMumbai, August 25 anchor mediately, she would have to fulfil testosterone-related eligibilitycriteriatoqualifyfor‘elite cricket’ like the Women’s Big Bash league (WBBl). cricket Australia’s ‘Transgender and Gender Diverse players in elite cricket policy’ requires a player’s serum testosterone to be below 10nmol/l(nanomolesperlitre) for at least 12 months to be eligible to play. in 2023, the international cricket council (icc) banned transgender players from the elitewomen’sgameiftheyhave gone through male puberty. A top Bcci official told The Indian Express that the board has no policy yet on trans Former mumbai U-19 cricketer anaya Bangar. AnAyAbAngAr/InSTAgrAM women playing women’s cricket. “When it comes to the icc, they have said no to it. Bcci is yet to decide what can be done in such cases. As this is the first time the board had come up with such a case, the board is yet to take a stand. especially on allowing them in domestic cricket,” the Bcci official said. responding to Anaya’s letter, cricket Australia’s Head of integrity, Jacqui partridge, said: “until March 2027, you remain eligible to participate in premier cricket competitions in any state or Territory of Australia. As premier cricket is classified as community cricketratherthanelitecricket Ahmedabad under the policy, your participation in those competitions is not affected by this determination.” “Your eligibility for elite cricket from that date (March 2027) is conditional upon you providing a blood test upon your arrival in Australia confirming that your serum testosterone concentration remains below 10 nmol/l and that you continue to satisfy the policy’s eligibility requirements,” partridge said. “i genuinely couldn’t believe that i’ll be able to play again. Because of cricket Australia and its progressive and inclusive policies, which focus on fairness and inclusion in women's sport for trans women, this is a huge milestone, not just for me, but for otherathleteslikemewhowant to try but aren’t doing so because they have to either choosethesportorchoosetransition,” Anaya said. While she is still recovering from the gender affirming surgery, Anaya said she was in the processoffindingaclubinAustralia to play for. in a social media post in Junelastyear,Anayahadcalled for a discussion with Bcci and icc representatives to discuss apolicyfortransathletes,based on data instead of “outdated perceptions”.inthepost,Anaya »ContinUeD on PAGe 2