DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 FIRST BILATERAL TALKS WITH TRUMP ADMN US brings up irregular immigration, India says always open to return Levels of trust very high: Jaishankar BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY UP CABINET AT MAHA KUMBH Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Cabinet colleagues take a dip at the Sangam during the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj on Wednesday. PTI WRITES TO PUNJAB As Punjab VIPs campaign for AAP, Delhi Police seeks security details ALOK SINGH NEW DELHI, JANUARY 22 DELHI POLICE has asked its Punjabcounterpartsto“intimate tour plans and security details” of protectees during the AssemblyelectionsandRepublic Dayfunctioninthenationalcapital.Following this,Punjab Police appointedanAssistantInspector General (AIG) as the nodal officer to maintain “liaison and coordination” between the two, sources said. Punjab Police has also written to all its protectees, includingstateministersandMLAs,requesting them to provide their CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 He left without legal documents, called after incident, says father of Saif stabbing accused SAGAR RAJPUT & NAYONIKA BOSE MUMBAI, JANUARY 22 THIRTY-EIGHT HOURS after he allegedly stabbed Saif Ali Khan at the actor’s Bandra residence, Mohd Shariful Islam called his father back home in Jhalokathi, Bangladesh. Shariful told his father he had transferred 10,000 Taka to the latter’s account. Shariful said he had Rs 3,000 in savings, enough to buy food for the next few days, his father, Md Ruhul Amin Fakir, recalled while speaking to The Indian Express over the phone. Two days later, Ruhul, a clerk in a jute company, saw his son’s face splashed across news chan- Shariful Islam of Bangladesh, arrested for attacking Saif nels and social media. “Iamastonished…Wedonot haveanyfinancialproblems,and committing such a crime is not somethinganyof uscouldimagine,” Ruhul said. The 54-year-old wondered how the family can help with legal aid when Shariful is “thousands of kilometres away”. Shariful, 30, dropped out of schoolafterClass10andentered India illegally in April last year CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WERE SPOOKED BY FIRE RUMOUR: MINISTER External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Quad counterparts Penny Wong of Australia, Marco Rubio of the US and Takeshi Iwaya of Japan in Washington, DC. PTI SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, JANUARY 22 NEWLY-APPOINTED US Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the issue of “irregular immigration”inhisveryfirstmeeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in INSIDE QUAD SENDS STRONG MESSAGE TO CHINA P6 Washington DC Wednesday. While there was no word on the discussion on tariffs, Rubio underlined the new administration’s desire to “advance economic ties”. The two sides are also discussingthepossibility of ameeting between Prime Minister NarendraModiandUSPresident Donald Trump on the sidelines of the AI summit in Paris on CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 STF mourns fallen veteran: Injured in gunbattle with UP gang, Inspector dies NEETIKA JHA NOIDA, JANUARY 22 THOSE WHO knew him never called him ‘Sir’. To his colleagues and juniors in the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF), he was ‘Dadu’, a term of endearment for the one who put them at ease. At 2.30 pm Wednesday, Inspector Sunil Kumar breathed his last, two days after he was shot at, allegedly by members of the Mustafa Kagga gang during CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Inspector Sunil Kumar had 3 bullet injuries Passengers get off after chain-pulling, passing train mows down 12 SWEETY ADIMULAM & DHEERAJ MISHRA JALGAON INCIDENT MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, JAN 22 AT LEAST 12 passengers of Mumbai-bound Pushpak Express, who got off the train after an alarm chain-pulling incident, were run over by another train coming from the opposite direction on the adjacent tracks in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district Wednesday evening. Ten more passengers were injured, four of them critically. Jalgaon Guardian Minister Gulabrao Patil said the passengers, mostly from the general compartment, were spooked by a rumour that the train had caught fire, and jumped out of the train. “There was a chain-pulling Jalgaon Karnataka Express Pushpak Express Maheji Accident site Pardhane Pachora Junction incident that caused the train to come toanabrupthaltwhenthe emergencybrakeswereapplied. The friction from the brakes caused sparks to fly from the tracks. Passengers in the general compartment, fearing the train had caught fire, jumped from CONTINUED ON PAGE 2