The editorial Page: gor in srinagar: A one-man mission to strengthen a sputtering relationship 8 TUESDaY, aUGUST 25, 2026 JournAlism of CourAge AhMedAbAd, lATe CiTy, 18 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 lFinance Minister nirMala Sitharaman will embark on a visit to Canada and the US to hold talks on economic cooperation and investment opportunities. PM MODi DevOtinG PersOnal attentiOn tO DevelOPinG rUssian-inDian relatiOns, saYs PUtin Jaishankar meets Putin, focus on trade, energy, fertilisers, high-tech By EP UNNY Modi and Putin to meet twice in next few weeks for SCO, BRICS Govt on Gor’s remarks: Trump unpredictable, so took cautious approach shubhajit roy business as Usual express news service New Delhi, August 24 gujarat Page 3 aSSaUlt caSe: no Hc relief to jailed aaP mla aHEaD OF two scheduled meetings between Prime Minister narendra Modi and RussianPresidentVladimirPutinin the next three weeks, External affairs Minister S Jaishankar calledonthelatterinMoscowon Monday. Putin told Jaishankar thatamongtheareasofbilateral cooperation with india, Russia isgivingprioritytoenergy,fertilisers, nuclear energy and high technology sectors. New Delhi, August 24 external affairs Minister s jaishankar with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. AP Modi and Putin are expected to meet at the ScO (Shanghai cooperation Organisation) summit in kyrgyzstan on august 31-September 1, and again at the BRicS summit in new Delhi on September 12-13. Underlining the increase in bilateral trade between the two »cOntinUeD On PaGe 2 ciTinG US President Donald Trump’s“unpredictablebehaviour” when meeting foreign leaders, government sources on Monday said india, therefore, adopted a “cautious approach” when Prime Minister narendra Modi met him in France in June this year. Theclarificationcameinresponse to US ambassador Sergio Gor’s public remarks that the indian side had asked the the world Page 15 trUmP moveS to Hike H-1b viSa fee to over $100,000 new U.S. SanctionS ‘aim to block iran revenUe SoUrceS’ US administration to “not do a full press conference, no questions” after the meeting »cOntinUeD On PaGe 2 express special shyamlal Yadav New Delhi, August 24 FOrM WitH WOrsHiPPers’ aaDHaar Or Pan tough conversion law kicks in this week, mumbai pastors ask churchgoers to sign form they are praying of their ‘free will’ ‘Self-declaration’ more as assurance, say pastors in Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar, Thane, Mumbai, Palghar after incidents of disrupted Sunday prayers and FIRs Purnima sah Mumbai, Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar, Palghar, Thane, August 24 THE MaHaRaSHTRa anticonversion law that toughens legal provisions against forced conversion comes into effect august 28. its shadow has already fallen on christian congregations across the Mumbai MetropolitanRegion.atprayer hallsinVasai-Virar,Mira-Bhayandar and beyond, local pastors are asking worshippers to dosomethingtheyneverhadto before — fill a form. This “self-declaration” states that they are attending theprayermeetingoftheirown “choice” and face “no pressure, inducement, temptation, lure, or threat of any kind”. it further says their decision to attend church “is completely personal, voluntary, and independent.” The form asks for a passport-size photograph and an aadhaar or Pan number. Until this year, anyone could walk in. Over the past month, The Indian Express found these forms being circulated — in English,MarathiandHindi–to congregations in Mumbai, Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar, Palghar and Thane. This follows a run of Sunday disruptions at prayer meetings overthepastfivemonths:there OBC creamy layer candidates in ’25 civil services exam: Govt seeks SC directions Gurgaon, Monday school buses stranded on a waterlogged road at subhash Chowk in gurgaon after heavy rainfall lashed the nCR on Monday, causing massive traffic jams and leading to cancellation of several flights. PTi GUrGaOn received 52 mm rainfall from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm, affecting movement on the delhi-gurgaon expressway and other roads tHe District administration advised corporate offices to work from home on Tuesday and told schools to hold classes online in DelHi, several areas, including Connaught Place, were inundated. janakpuri recorded the highest rainfall at 72.5 mm THE cEnTRE on Monday sought “clarifications and appropriate directions” from the Supreme court on the applicability of its March 11 judgment ordering the consideration of claims by nearly 100 OBc candidates who were selected in civil Services Examinations (cSE)since2016butrejectedby the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on the basis of creamy layer criteria. The centre’s clarification plea comes just ahead of the start of the Foundation course for the cSE-2025 batch, tentatively scheduled to begin at the Lal Bahadur Shastri national academy of administration in Mussoorie this week. The appeal, the centre emphasised,wasconcernedsolely withcSE-2025,whoseselection process “stood substantially concluded prior to the pronouncement of the judgment and is presently at the terminal stage of service allocation”. in its appeal, the DoPT, however, doesnotmentionthe applicability of the Supreme court judgment from next batches. E. explained govt says will have cascading effect The Centre has argued that SC’s March 11 judgment came five days after the final result of CSE-2025 was declared. Delay in finalisation of the category-wise merit and allocation list would have a cascading effect — from training to seniority and pay fixation of the incoming batch. The centre said that the March 11 judgment “altering settled position (on creamy layer) was rendered five days afterthefinalresultofcSE-2025 already stood declared”. any delay in finalisation of the category-wisemeritandallocation list would have a cascading effect on the training schedule, batchstrength,logisticsarrangements, the training calendar fixed by the respective academies, cadre allocation for iaS and iPS officers, and the seniority and pay fixation of the »cOntinUeD On PaGe 2 worshippers sign the form at new hope Church in Virar. PUrNiMA SAh l the‘declaration’ l They attend church voluntarily. l They participate in prayers of their own free will. l Their participation is part of their religious freedom and a right guaranteed under Constitution of india. l in case anyone makes a false allegation against them or the church, the voluntary application/self-declaration may be produced as legal evidence. have been nine FiRs linked to five such disruptions between april and July. Pattern of prayer, protest Typically, a prayer meeting is held on a Sunday, often in a rentedhall,school,banquethall or home. People identifying themselves as Bajrang Dal or VHPworkersobject,oftenalleging that Hindus are being converted. Police are called, both sides are taken to the station, »cOntinUeD On PaGe 2 J&K reopens probe into 1998 massacre of 23 Kashmiri Pandits Lessons from Jantar Mantar: Delhi Police chief orders intel revamp New Delhi, August 24 l 10specificpiecesofintelligence Bashaarat Masood DELHi POLicE commissioner anurag kumar has asked the intelligence wingof the force to expanditsinformation-gatheringefforts,andtocollectatleast 10specificpiecesofintelligence aheadofeveryplannedprotest. Sources said the directive was issued earlier this month aftertheprotestsatJantarMantarandconnaughtPlaceinJuly sawamuchbiggerturnoutthan anticipated, “exposing gaps” in intelligence-collection. Policewerecaughtflatfooted the intelligence wing has been directed to collect and analyse: Srinagar, August 24 JaMMU anD kashmir’s State investigation agency (Sia) has reopened the Wandhama massacre case, 28 years after militants gunned down 23 kashmiri Pandits in Ganderbal district in the Valley. Sources in the Sia said the casewasreopenedaspartofthe agency’seffortstoreinvestigate thekillingsofkashmiriPandits and gather fresh evidence to identify those responsible. “Sia kashmir has already launched a focused investigation into these decades-old casesasamissionofutmostimportance. all-out efforts are underway to unravel the underlying conspiracies, unearth and establish credible evidence, and identify the perpetrators strictly on the basis of evidence and witness testimony,” said a senior Sia official. “The objective is clear: to bringthesecasestotheirlogical conclusiononmerits,ensuring »cOntinUeD On PaGe 2 sakshi chand l Profile of participants l State-wise participation l Modes of mobilisation l Names of leaders and key functionaries at least 50,000 protesters hit the streets in delhi on july 20 l Agenda or demands of the protesters l Organisational affiliations l Places of stay and movement l Sources of funding l local contacts and linkages l logistical arrangements »cOntinUeD On PaGe 2 l Cong MP Rauf Valiullah’s killing was allegedly oRdeRed by abdul latif, the gangsteR on whose life sRk’s Raees is said to haVe been based; hC RejeCts ConViCt’s Plea against RejeCtion of sentenCe ReMission 34 years ago in Ahmedabad, a chilling gangland killing — and a saga that continues aditi raja has ruled that a member of the gangwhoseleaderallegedlyordered the hit on Valiullah must Back in the early 1990s, a continue to remain in jail. former congress leader and iqbal Hussain Dhobi alias member of the Rajya Sabha Laliyo kasambhai, a convicted named Rauf Valiullah was member of the abdul Latif brought down by gunshots to gang that struck terror in his head outside Madhuban ahmedabadthreedecadesago, Buildinginahmedabad’sEllis- had filed a plea seeking the bridge area. quashing and setting aside of The hit, carried the state governpage 1 outinbroaddaylight mentdecisionrejectin the heart of ing his plea for ahmedabad, was remission of his one of the most sensational sentence. cases of gangland killing in the Dhobi had asked the court city at the time. to direct the authorities to conThirty-four years after that sider the case for grant of repolitically charged assassin- mission and premature release ation, the Gujarat High court after serving the sentence imVadodara, August 24 anchor posed on him in the 1992 murder case. advocate Hemant Raval, appearing for Dhobi, argued that the former gangster had been acquitted in most of the other criminal cases registered against him — and that he was not the principal assailant in the Valiullah case, but only a co-accused. Justice M R Mengdey of the Gujarat Hc, after considering the submissions made by the state, rejected Dhobi’s plea on Thursday (august 20). That day in Ahmedabad On October 9, 1992, Valiullah, who was general secretary abdul latif File of the Gujarat Pradesh congress committee at the time, was shot in the head at close range outside Madhuban Building by an underworld hit team of several armed men. Valiullah, who was accompanied by an associate named Pradeep Dave at the time, was allegedly about to expose a deep criminal-politician nexus before the central leadership of the congress party. He had come out of the buildingandwasabouttogetin his car when the assailants struck. The killing of Valiullah was allegedly ordered by gangster abdul Latif, a man who started his criminal career as a gambler-turned-bootlegger, beforegoingontoathrivingcareer in organised crime, with the reputation of being the only known pointsman in Gujarat of Dawood ibrahim. ‘Raees’, the 2017 film by Rahul Dholakia that was set largely in ahmedabad and starred Shah Rukh khan, was seentohavecloseparallelswith the life of abdul Latif, even though the filmmaker and the actor had denied any connection. Latif, who was accused in dozens of cases including the 1993 Bombay blasts, was killed in an alleged police encounter in ahmedabad in 1997. The Valiullah murder was Ahmedabad one of the most sensational cases linked to the gangster – and as recently as in June this year, the ahmedabad crime Branch had swooped on another accused in the case, Mohammad Taslim Shaikh, whohadjumpedparolein2019. Shaikh, the absconding accused in the Valiullah murder, was found to be living in Rajasthan with his family from a second wife. Long years of ‘good conduct’ in jail: What Dhobi told court Hemant Raval, counsel for Dhobi, told the Hc that his client’s role could not be equated with that of the principal assailant. He underlined that Dhobi was only a co-accused, and that he had been acquitted in most of the other cases lodged against him. Raval also submitted that Dhobi had served more than 22 years in prison and had received a “good conduct” report from the jail. He had been carrying out the tasks assigned to him in jail with responsibility, Raval said. The court noted Raval as having submitted, “The conduct of the petitioner in jail is reported to be good. The petitioner had absconded only on oneoccasionforaperiodof360 »cOntinUeD On PaGe 11