DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, PATNA, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 CBC 15502/13/0028/2526 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2025, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES OCTOBER 6 DISCUSSIONS ACC CHIEF MOHSIN NAQVI IS PAKISTAN’S CRICKET HEAD & INTERIOR MINISTER ran TalksonLadakh They snubaway with trophy, says SKY after India Asian cricket chief from Pak hitawallasLeh Focus on India vs Pak in women’s World Cup: ‘Will bodypullsout, keep protocol in mind’ Kargilto‘follow’ Return trophy and medals, BCCI tells Naqvi, says will lodge complaint at ICC DEVENDRA PANDEY & SANDIP G MUMBAI, DUBAI, SEPT 29 ABL seeksprobeintokillings,releaseof jailed;opentotalksanytime:Centre DEEPTIMAN TIWARY LEH, SEPTEMBER 29 THEAPEXBody,Leh(ABL),which was supposed to hold informal talkswiththeCentreonTuesday followed by structured discussionsonOctober6,haspulledout of both, citing the current situation in Ladakh and a “negative” campaign against its agitation seeking Sixth Schedule status and statehood for the region. Asked about the ABL stand, KargilDemocraticAlliance(KDA) member Sajjad Kargili told The IndianExpressthattheirposition “isthesame”.TheKDAisleading the agitation for Sixth Schedule andstatehoodontheKargilside. Soon after the ABL’s announcement, the Centre said it was open to talks with the ABL “TROPHY LEKE bhaag gaye woh (Theyranawaywiththetrophy).” SpeakingtoTheIndianExpress, a day after leading his team to a thrilling Asia Cup final win over Pakistan, this was how Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav summed up the bizarre scenes that played out after the game in Dubai the previous night. According to him, the Indian playerswaitedfornearlyanhour after they refused to receive the trophy from the Pakistan board and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also VINAYAKK MOHANARANGAN AP Took decision on our own on the ground: Suryakumar hiscountry'sinteriorminister.In theend,theycelebratedwithout the trophy. “Wedidn’tclosethedoorand sit inside the dressing room. We didn’t make anyone wait for the presentation ceremony. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GUWAHATI, SEPTEMBER 29 AFTER THE politically charged Asia Cup final, a cloud of tension now hovers over the next IndiaPakistan cricket clash — at the women’s T20 World Cup in Colombo this Sunday. Sources told The Indian Express thattheBCCIisweighing itsoptionsonthewomen'steam sticking to India's stand in the Asia Cup, of avoiding handshakes with Pakistan's players. At the funeral of Tsewang Tharchin, a Kargil veteran who was among the four killed in Leh. Deeptiman Tiwary 4 WOMEN BOOKED Dalit student ‘abused, dragged by hair’ from garba event in Mahisagar and KDA through the High Powered Committee on Ladakh oranysuchplatform“atanytime” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORT EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE PAGE 10 VADODARA, SEPTEMBER 29 ‘If police had not opened fire, entire Ladakh would have been burnt down’ DEEPTIMAN TIWARY KARUR STAMPEDE: TVK LEADER HELD LEH, SEPTEMBER 29 THE LADAKH administration has alleged foreign and political involvement in the recent violence inLeh,evenasApexBody,Lehhas calleditaspontaneousreactionof youth frustrated with lack of opportunitiesintheUnionTerritory. A long-time RSS and BJP leader from Jammu, who served as Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu andKashmirwhenLadakhwasa part of the erstwhile state, KavinderGuptawasappointedas Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW KAVINDER GUPTA A poster of those killed in Saturday’s stampede at TVK chief Vijay’s rally in Karur. Reuters TVK DISTRICT secretary Mathiyalagan was arrested by the police on Monday HE WAS among 3 TVK leaders who have been booked for the incident that killed 41 people FIR mentionedexcesscrowd, delayedentryamongreasons leadingtotheincident. PAGE12 LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF LADAKH just two months ago. In an interview with The Indian Express, he speaksontheviolence,issuesconcerning Ladakh and how the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE TRUMP SAYS ISRAEL HAS AGREED TO HIS 20-POINT PLAN FOR GAZA P 15 ZUBEEN PROBE: ASSAM SEEKS TO INVOKE TREATY WITH SINGAPORE P 12 X TO APPEAL AGAINST HC’S DISMISSAL OF PLEA ON SAHYOG P13 “ItisanICCeventsotherewillbe protocols in place, which the team will keep in mind,” a BCCI official said. AfterIndia’srefusaltoreceive the Asia Cup trophy from PakistanCricketBoardandAsian Cricket Council chief Mohsin Naqvi, and the subsequent war of wordsbetweenbothsides,the spotlight will be on the two womenskippers—Harmanpreet Kaur and Fatima Sana — when theywalkoutforthetossattheR Premadasa Stadium. “Weshouldcallourwomen’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 India to build two cross-border rail links to Bhutan, will cost `4,000 cr THE TWO NEW RAIL LINES DHEERAJ MISHRA NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 29 THE CENTRE will build two cross-border railway projects connectingBhutanwiththebordering areas of Assam and West Bengal, its first rail link with the Himalayan nation that is expected to boost ties and trade, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Monday. The two projects — a 69-km line connecting Kokrajhar in Assam to Gelephu in Bhutan, and a 20-km line connecting Banarhat in West Bengal to SAMTSE BANARHAT BHUT BHUTAN UTAN GELEPHU INDIA IN West Bengal West Bengal Beng engal ALTAGRAM ALTAGRAM Assam Assam KOKRAJHAR KAMAKHYAGURI KAMA GURI Samtse in Bhutan — will cost Rs 3,456 crore and Rs 577 crore, respectively. Vaishnaw, at a press conference, said the projects are of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE MAHISAGAR district police in Gujarat booked four women from Bharodi village in Virpur taluka for allegedly humiliating and abusing a Dalit woman and dragging her by the hair from a village garba event on Friday night. The FIR lodged at Virpur police station by Rinku Vankar, 25, a fourth-year student of the Government Engineering College (GEC) in Gandhinagar, states that the incident took place when she decided to join the garba along with her friend. In the FIR, the complainant statedthatthreewomen—Loma Patel, Roshni Patel and Vrushti Patel — first chastised her for joining the event and “began abusing and humiliating her”. “Afteranargument(withthe threewomen),theyusedcasteist slurs and said, ‘These people are not equal to us and cannot play garba with us’. At that time, I got them to switch off the sound system which was playing for the garba, and complained to Pravin Narsinh Thakor that we were being humiliated... But at that moment, Loma, Roshni and MeenaPateljoinedtogetherand began assaulting me…,” she stated in the FIR. Thecomplainantfurthersaid that the women grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out while the others overpowered her to prevent her from filming the incident. “They not only hurled casteist abuses at me, but also threatened me with dire CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Amid thaw in relations with India, Canada designates Lawrence gang as terrorist entity MANRAJ GREWAL SHARMA CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 29 THECANADIANgovernmenthas designated the Lawrence Bishnoi gang as a terrorist entity under its Criminal Code, a step thatbarsCanadiansfromproviding it financial and material support and allows for the freezing of assets, property seizures and criminal charges against the gang’s affiliates. The development comes at a time when India and Canada are in the process of mending their relations,whichwerestrainedin 2023 after Justin Trudeau, the thenCanadianPrimeMinister,alleged“potential”involvementof Indiangovernmentagentsinthe killingof Canada-basedKhalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar — a charge that India rejected as Move bars Canadians from giving his gang financial support “absurd” and “motivated”. On September 18, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Canadian counterpart Nathalie G Drouin met in Delhi and discussed a range of issues — from pro-Khalistan activities and threats, Nijjar’s killing, besidescooperationincounter-terrorism, including India’s demand that Ottawa hand over those involved in terror and separatist activities against India and criminal activities in India. AftertheNSAsmet,anIndian readout had said the two sides engaged in productive CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Tender worth Rs 125 cr for Sabarmati Ashram redevelopment cancelled Now, the trust to float two tenders PARIMAL A DABHI AHMEDABAD, SEPTEMBER 29 THE MAHATMA Gandhi Sabarmati Ashram Memorial Trust (MGSAMT), which is implementing the Rs 1,200-crore Sabarmati Ashram redevelopment project, has cancelled its tender worth Rs 125 crore that was floated to design and develop museums and exhibitions in around 28 buildings in the redeveloped ashram, within nearlytwomonthsof closingthe bids. The trust will float two separate tenders for designing and building. Top sources associated with CM Bhupendra Patel during a visit to the Ashram. File the project said that the decision has been taken after it was realised that it would not be possible to fairly evaluate bids received under the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Meet Param, ‘That Girl’ from Punjab whose single is blowing up Internet PAGE 1 ANCHOR SUANSHU KHURANA NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 29 A PLANE cuts across the sky above a maze of tin roofs and from the crumbling homes in the alleys below, a girl, in a boxy T-shirt that says ‘World Circuit’ andcamouflagecargos,stepsout with neighbourhood children and mouths a few sharp lines in crisp Malwa Punjabi. “Ve main addi na patashe jaavan phor di…/ Ankh takdi na kise nu eh ghoordi/ Meri chuppi japdi doonge shor jahi (I don’t just stand around breaking sugar candies/ My eyes don’t just look, they stare/ My silence feels like a deep noise)” go the first few lines of a hip-hop track, titled ‘That Girl’. Dropped on YouTube lastweek,thisdebutsingleraked up over 30 lakh views within six days. This song, which is blowing up the Internet right now, is by 19-year-old rapper and singer ParamjeetKaur,whogoesbythe moniker Param, and is based in Duneke, a sleepy village in Punjab’s Moga. Produced by British record producer Manni Sandhu, the track has been backed by an independent record label, named Collab Creations, shot in Mohali and made without the help of industry heavyweights. Interestingly, the song was recorded in an Airbnb in Punjab during Sandhu's recent India visit.Hebegantoplaysomekeys and Param began layering the first verse. "We did not record this track in an expensive studio. There was no acoustic treatment... you could hear cars outside, but still, the vocals were extremely crisp. Honestly, after 15 years in the game, experiences like this only Paramjeet Kaur in her debut single titled ‘That Girl’ happen now and again. Within 10 minutes, we had the vibe of the song down," Sandhu says in a video he put out on Instagram on Monday. Sandhu took these vocals back to his studio in the UK, added some final touches and asked his friends, Dilsher Singh and Khurpal Singh, who call themselves Tru Makers, to shoot the music video. "This was simplydowntorawtalent,That'sit," adds Sandhu, who was born in West London and raised in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. What has earned Param the spotlight is not just the raw energyinhervoice,butalsoherau- thentic tone, powerful singing and a challenge to the typical trope of a Punjabi woman singer who often sings folk or pop. In the hyper-masculine rap scene of Punjab, where women are often reduced to props in music videos, Param isn’t doing the emceeing in street vernacular — she has composed the track and issingingwithallthelungpower she can muster. “There are many women in Punjab singing pop music. But Param is quite unique because she is one of a kind. There aren’t any women rappers in Punjab rappinginPunjabi.Sheisthefirst one in the ‘Gully Boy’ space. I think she will go a long way,” saysSatvinderSinghKohli,managing director, Speed Records, the region’s biggest music company that releases over 200 songs annually and is responsible for launching musicians like HoneySinghandSatinderSartaj. In Param’s case, what makes her even more interesting is that her swagger isn’t ripped off — it is her own and is born out of a struggle to survive. Growing up in Duneke, where her mother works as house help and her father is a daily-wage labourer, Param got interested in rap when she was CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad