DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2025, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ‘ARC OF HISTORY IS BENDING NOW’ India’s rise is a stabilising force, now dominance of hegemon contested: FM ‘We can’t afford to be spectators... we must be active participants shaping outcomes... preserving autonomy’ Wangchuk’s wife moves top court against his arrest under NSA EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 3 GITANJALI ANGMO, the wife of activist Sonam Waghchuk, has movedaHabeasCorpuspetition before the Supreme Court, challengingherhusband’sarrest under the National Security Act (NSA) for allegedly playing a role in instigating the violent protests in Ladakh on September 24, which led to four deaths in police firing. According to the court’s official website, Angmo filed her petition on Thursday evening. The court is currently on Dussehra vacation and will reopen on October 6 when Angmo's lawyers are likely to request for an urgent hearing. Meanwhile, in a post on X, Angmo wrote: “I have sought relief from the Supreme Court of India through a Habeas Corpus petition against Wangchuk's detention. It is one week today. Still I have no information about Sonam Wangchuk's health, the condition he is in nor the grounds of detention.” Wangchuk was detained on September 26 under NSA, which empowers governments to act pre-emptively against individuals seen as a threat to public CONTINUEDONPAGE2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 3 Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with economist and former Rajya Sabha MP N K Singh at the Kautilya Economic Conclave in New Delhi on Friday. ANI 12 feared drowned during idol immersion in Agra, rescue ops on SAMAN HUSAIN CALLING India’s rise as a stabilising force on the global stage as “neither accidental nor transient”, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in an apparent reference to the US, said Friday that the “absolute dominance once enjoyed by a hegemon is now contested.” Speaking at the Kautilya EconomicConclave,organisedby the Ministry of Finance and the Institute of Economic Growth, the Finance Minister said that sanctions,tariffsanddecoupling strategies are testing alliances thatonceappearedsolidandare creating new coalitions. These dynamics,shesaid,highlightvulnerabilityandresilienceforIndia and the choices the country makes will determine “whether resiliencebecomesafoundation for leadership or merely a buffer against uncertainty”. Framingtoday’schallengeasa CONTINUEDONPAGE2 UTTAR PRADESH BAREILLY CLASHES: CLERIC URGES CALM AFTER FRIDAY PRAYERS PAGE 3 IAF chief details Pak losses: F-16s, JF-17s among aircraft taken out on ground, in air Manohar Kahaniyan, he says on Pak claims about downing Indian aircraft AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 3 IN FIRST public remarks detailing Pakistani losses during the hostilities that followed Operation Sindoor, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh said Friday that Indian strikes at three separate locations inside Pakistan resulted in damage to a C-130 aircraft, CONTINUEDONPAGE2 EXPRESS NETWORK ARMY CHIEF TO PAK: INDIA WON’T SHOW RESTRAINT NEXT TIME PAGE 7 NOIDA, OCTOBER 3 WHAT BEGAN as a celebration turned into a day of mourning in Agra on Thursday, after 13 people, many of them teenagers, were swept into a deep pit in the Utangan river while immersing an idol of Goddess Durga. By evening, only one man was rescued alive, five bodies were retrieved and the frantic CONTINUEDONPAGE2 People at the spot in Agra on Friday. PTI AIIMS study shows how training gap in certifying brain death hits organ donation ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 3 ASURVEYof 177of thecountry’s topneurosurgeons,neurologists and critical care specialists shows that over half (59.2 per cent) were not trained in medicalcollegestocertifybraindeath — a knowledge gap that impacts organ donations, according to a studypublishedrecentlybydoctors at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Delhi. While nearly three-fourth (74.5%) of the doctors surveyed worked at teaching hospitals, only 10 per cent said they regularly trained their residents in brain death certification. More than a third of the doctors said CONTINUEDONPAGE2 E EXPLAINED Wangchuk is accused of instigating Ladakh mob SIDDHARTH UPASANI & AANCHAL MAGAZINE Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh addresses a press conference in New Delhi on Friday. PTI Boosting donation ● numbers DESPITE INDIA performing among the highest number of organ transplants in the world, the national organ donation rate has hovered under one per million population for years, compared with more than 30 per million in countries such as Spain. Experts point out that better awareness, stronger hospital systems and streamlined brain death certification are critical to bridging this gap. Violent protests sweep PoK, India says Pak oppression is the cause SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 3 INITSfirst official statement on the wave of protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the Indian government said Friday that the “brutalities by Pakistani forces on innocent civilians” is a consequence of Pakistan’s “oppressive approach”. The government also underlined that the territories are under “forcible and illegal occupation” of Pakistan. At least 10 people have been killed in five days of violent protestssinceMondayinPoK,and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has set up a committee of seniorofficialsandministerstoresolvethecrisis. CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Six women, a Mumbai catering unit & a fire that snuffed out their lives PAGE 1 ANCHOR MANISH KUMAR PATHAK MUMBAI, OCTOBER 3 SHIVANI GANDHI, Raksha Joshi, Durgavati Gupta, Janaki Gupta, Nitu Gupta, and Punita Gautam. Led by Shivani,thesix,members of a catering unit in Mumbai’s Kandivali, had a lot in common — besides the practised ease ShivaniGandhi,RakshaJoshi,DurgavatiGupta,JanakiGupta,NituGuptaandPunitaGautam—all of themwerekilledinafireatacateringunitinMumbai’sKandivaliareaonSeptember24 with which they rolled out theplas,tookbreakfastandlunchorders, and passed on thalis with barely a spill. Most of them lived in the Ram Nagar slums nearby. So whenever they stole some time off their hardscrabble lives back home, they would walk down to the catering unit, where they were paid by the hour. CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Lucknow