The Editorial Page: In Delhi’s support for Arab Gulf, a return of the Bombay school of thought 8 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE JAIPUR, 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 POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 REGION ON EDGE AS U.S. PRESIDENT’S DEADLINE APPROACHES ‘A whole civilisation will die’: Trump warns Iran not to reject his deal terms ForeignSecy Misritostart US visittoday; trade,defence, techonagenda US hits military sites on Kharg; Iranians to form human chains at power plants Over 27 lakh out: EC releases first data of deletions after adjudication 45% of 60 lakh under adjudication deleted; highest cut by percentage in Matua-dominated Nadia Bassem Mroue, Jon Gambrell, Mike Corder & Samy Magdy DECISION 2026 Tehran, April 7 USPRESIDENTDonaldTrump threatened Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight”ifIranfailstomeethislatest deadline to strike a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, while the Islamic Republic urged young people to form human chains around power plants and other potential targets. Even before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the US hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island. It was the second time American forces struck theisland,akeyhubforIranian oil production. Intense airstrikes pounded Tehran, including in residential neighbourhoods. In the past, such strikes have targeted Iraniangovernmentandsecurity officials. Sincethewarbegan,Trump has repeatedly imposed deadlines linked to threats, only to extend them. But the President insistedthisoneisfinalandwill expire at 8 pm in Washington (5.30 am Wednesday India) without a major diplomatic breakthrough. He has also offered contradictory statements about what might actually happen. Trump has made reopening the strait — through which a fifth of the world’soiltransitsinpeacetime — part of avoiding wider attacks and suggested that the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 happening today lNATO SECRETARY-GENERAL Mark Rutte is scheduled to visit Washington and meet President Donald Trump. THE BIg PICTURE The Inscrutable mr vijayan PAGE 12 WESTBENGAL Atri Mitra Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, April 7 US Air Force crew chiefs perform pre-flight checks on a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber prior to a mission. X/@CENTCOM Stayinside,avoid militarysites: Indianembassyto itsnationalsinIran At Vapi’s chemical units, order books hit, cash flows blocked Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, April 7 WITH US President Donald Trump warning Iran that “a whole civilization will die” if it does not agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz,theIndianembassyin Tehran Tuesday asked Indian nationalstostayindoorsforthe next 48 hours. Intheadvisory,theembassy said, “Indian nationals who are still in Iran must stay where they are for the next 48 hours, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WAR IN GULF DAY 39 toll AT HOme AN ExPRESS SERIES Akash Mandal Vapi (Gujarat), April 7 ABOUT 50 workers are engrossedintheirownmachines, weaving designs into garments Capacity, margins of plastics units dip, workers hit by LPG shortage go home at a unit in one of the three clusters of Vapi Industrial Estate in Valsad district. These clothes will find their way to someofthebiggestfashionand apparel brands in India. Butuncertaintyloomslarge not only among these workers butalsothemanagement,both without any clear view of when the conflict in West Asia would end. For manufacturers, the war has significantly driven up production costs, and hit their existing order books. And for workers, the inability to procure LPG cylinders has caused acute anxiety, triggering unfounded fears of a lockdown that made everything difficult during Covid six years back. Vapi has a concentration of chemical industries, and bulk ofitsalmost3,000factories,are mini and micro units. These smallscaleunitsinplastics,textiles and engineering, use »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AMID SIGNS of the conflict in West Asia escalating, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will visitWashingtonDCfromApril 8 to 10 and meet senior US officials in the Donald Trump administration. Thevisittakesplaceatatime when the US President issued a direct threat on Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline, forIrantoagreetoadealthatincludes reopening the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes. TheMinistryofExternalAffairssaidthatForeignSecretary Misri’svisitwill“provideanopportunity to review the full spectrum of India–US bilateral relations and advance ongoing cooperation across key areas”. During the visit, Misri will hold “discussions with senior officials of the US administration on a wide range of issues, including trade, defence, science and technology, as well as regional and global developments of mutual interest”. It may be noted that India has been in touch with all the stakeholders in the Gulf and West Asia region, including »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Business as Usual INTERNET SUSPENDED IN BISHNUPUR, 4 OTHER DISTRICTS By EP UNNY Two children killed at home in Manipur attack; two die as mob storms CRPF post Jimmy Leivon & Sukrita Baruah Bishnupur, Guwahati, April 7 VIOLENCE GRIPPED Manipur’s Bishnupur on Tuesday afterafour-year-oldboyandhis newborn sister were killed in their sleep when a rocket-like projectile struck their home in thedistrictearlyTuesdaymorning. This sparked intense protests, during which two civilians were killed, officials said. Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh said that a massive operation is underway to nab those responsible for the attack that killed the two children, telling reporters that security forces have been instructed to “hunt At a protest in Manipur’s Bishnupur district, Tuesday. PTI them down dead or alive” on Tuesday itself. Khemchand said that the government has decided to hand over the case to the National Investigation Agency, and asserted that they suspect thata“grouporindividualwho wants to destabilise the peace process in the state when we have made substantial headway” is behind the attack. The state government has temporarily suspended internetinfivevalleydistricts—Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal, Kakching, and Bishnupur — for three days to maintain law and order. The early-morning attack occurred in Tronglaobi Awang Leikai, a village situated along the sensitive boundary between the Meitei-dominated valley and the Kuki-Zomidominatedhills.Thechildren’s mother, Oinam Binita, was critically injured in the blast and is currently being treated »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata, April 7 OF THE 60,06,675 names under adjudication in West Bengal after they had been left out of electoral rolls, 27,16,393, or 45.22%, stand “deleted”, as perthefirstsuchdatasharedby the Election Commission of India (ECI). On Monday midnight, the ECI released its final SupplementaryListaftertheadjudicationprocessbeganamonthago. Ofthecasesmeantforadjudication, 59,84,512 have been disposed of, the ECI data shows. The total number of voters in Bengal now stands at 6.77 crore, from 7.66 crore at the start of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise — a deletionof89lakhpeopleinall, a decline of 11.62%. Of the states where SIR has been completed, this puts only Gujarat ahead of Bengal, with 13.4% deletions. In Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh, the voter numbers declined by 11.55% and 11.77%, respectively. Ofthe27,16,393voterswhose names have been deleted from electionrollsafteradjudication, 14,28,771 or 52.6%, will not be abletocasttheirballotthistime as the voter list for the first phaseofWestBengalAssembly polls has been frozen. Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, April 7 PAGE 3 DIvERSIfICATIoN NEEDED To RAISE fARmERS’ INComE, SAYS CHoUHAN GEHLoT’S JIBE oN INfRA DRAwS BJP’S CoUNTER Found‘noteligible’ MURSHIDABAD 4,55,137 NORTH 24 PARGANAS 3,25,666 MALDA 2,39,375 SOUTH 24 PARGANAS 2,22,929 PURBA BARDHAMAN 2,09,805 NADIA 2,08,626 UTTAR DINAJPUR 1,76,972 HOWRAH 1,32,151 HOOGHLY 1,20,813 COOCHBEHAR BIRBHUM 1,20,725 82,059 DAKSHIN DINAJPUR 76,768 PASCHIM BARDHAMAN 74,100 PASCHIM MEDINIPUR 52,277 DARJEELING 44,230 KOLKATA NORTH 39,164 ALIPURDUAR 36,078 JALPAIGURI 35,356 KOLKATA SOUTH 28,468 PURBO MEDINIPUR 19,572 BANKURA 6,533 PURULIA 5,942 KALIMPONG JHARGRAM 2,407 1,240 EDITOrIAL PAGE EC fAILED BENGAL voTERS, SC SHoULD Look AGAIN P 8 The remaining 12,87,622 (47.4%) still have a chance to be included in voter rolls if tribunals clear their names before »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Meet the deleted: ‘I voted in 2024... now told to prove identity’ Ravik Bhattacharya, Atri Mitra & Sweety Kumari rAjAsThAN l OF THE 60 lakh-plus names underadjudicationinWestBengal after they were left out of electoral rolls, over 27 lakh now stand “deleted”, as per the first suchdatasharedbytheElection Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday. The Indian Express spoketo10people—fromamigrant labourer to an advocate, from a college employee to a homemaker—whovotedinthe 2024 Lok Sabha polls but might not be able to this time. Many have turned to tribunals for help,andsaytheinabilitytovote wouldimpacttheirlivesinmore ways than one. Antu Sheikh (42), labourer from Murshidabad A resident of Asanpara village and a mason by profession, Sheikh has worked in different parts of the country – Delhi, Chennai, Odisha. Six of his siblings are on the voter list, but Antu and his elder sister, Lalmoni Khatun, have been deleted after adjudication. Antu voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and previous elections, too. “We were called for a hearing on February 24 at the Bhagabangola high school field. Earlier, we were served a notice in the ‘six or more »CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 l THE TWO MACHINES, WEIGHING 6,000 TONNES IN TOTAL, ARE FOR THE MUMBAI-AHMEDABAD BULLET TRAIN PROJECT In dead of night, huge tunnel boring machines on the move in Mumbai Dheeraj Mishra theMumbai-AhmedabadHighSpeed Rail Corridor — India’s firstbullettrainproject.Supplied SINCE MARCH 31, a convoy of by the German company, Hermulti-axle trailers has been renknecht, they arrived at the inching forward on Mumbai’s port, via Guangzhou in China, roadseachnight,accompanied on March 23. Each TBM is estiby escort vehicles including a matedtocostaboutRs250crore. Led by a 144-tyre trailer, towing vehicle. The trailers, carrying multiple parts of two pulled by a 500-horsepower tunnel boring machines Volvo truck, the convoy restricts its movement (TBMs), are on their PAGE 1 to between 11 pm way from the Jawaand 5 am. The bigharlal Nehru Port gest trailer is loaded (JNPT) to Vikhroli and Savali, a distance of about with a 300-tonne main drive, 62 kilometres and 51 kilo- the critical and heaviest part of a TBM that powers the cutter metres, respectively. The TBMs, weighing 6,000 head used to excavate tunnels. tonnesintotal,areforthe21-km At least three more multi-axle underground tunnel stretch of trailers carry the other heavy Mumbai, April 7 anchor components including the main shield. In fact, a total of 219 trailers have been deployed to move theTBMsfromJNPTtothetwo sites where they will be deployed — Vikhroli, a suburb of Mumbai, and Savali in Ghansoli area of Navi Mumbai. Themulti-axletrailersmanage to cover a maximum of 10 km each night. The smaller, flatbed trailers, carrying containers of smaller machine parts, make the journey to Vikhroli/ Savali in one night, in about four hours. All the shipments of the TBMs are expected to leave the port by April 12. While a total of 154 trailers have arrived at E. ExPLAINED factfile l The 508-km bullet train project includes a total tunnel area of 27.4 km (21 km underground, 6.4 km surface). l The first section of the project, from Surat to Bilimora in Gujarat, is scheduled to be ready by August 15, 2027. A shaft where the machine will be installed to make way for the bullet train tracks, at Vikhroli in Mumbai. SANKHADEEP BANERJEE lThe entire 508-km project is expected to be completed by December 2029. Jaipur the two sites so far, 65 are yet to reach. Once fully assembled, a TBM will measure 96 metres long, with a diameter of 13.6 metres,whichisalmostequalto a four-floor building. For comparison, the TBM used in the Delhi Metro project typically has a diameter of 6.6 metres. Earlier, the National High SpeedRailCorporationLimited (NHSRCL), the implementing agency of the high-speed rail project, had commissioned a detailedsurveyofthestretchof road from the port to the two sites.Thesurveymappedallthe bridges, underpasses, creeks, tollplazas,barricades,trafficdiversions, height of street lights, and the width and weightcarryingcapacityofroadsalong the routes. It was then decided to take a longer route, without disturbing daytime traffic movement, avoiding major roads like the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and the Eastern Express Highway. Explaining the challenges faced during the route survey, Pranet Kumar, an employee of the logistics company involved in the task, said: “The first survey was conducted almost a year ago, and we carried out another one recently. On the JNPT road, stone barricades wereblockingtherouteandhad to be removed. At the 28.3-km »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2