THURSDAY 17 JULY, 2025 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard KHARGE, RAHUL WRITE TO PM, SEEK LAW TO RESTORE STATEHOOD OF J&K ISRAEL FRESH SYRIAN TRUCE DECLARED Syria has announced a renewed ceasefire on Wednesday after days of clashes that threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition PAGE 9 The Congress leaders said the legislation should be brought in Parliament’s Monsoon session ‘INCLUDE LADAKH UNDER 6TH SCHEDULE’ A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 The leaders of opposition in the two houses of Parliament—Kharge in Rajya Sabha and Gandhi in Lok Sabha—also called on the government to bring a legislation to include the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The Sixth Schedule is constitutionally protected, ensuring greater autonomy and security for local governance | P7 ‘SIT misdirected Don at it again on India deal itself’ in Ashoka prof case, says SC D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi Asks why it expanded scope of investigation into Mahmudabad’s FB post on Op Sindoor “It is open for the SIT to say that the contents of the FIRs does not disclose any offence. QUESTIONING the line of Then this case can be closed. It probe by a Haryana police Spe- can always say that during the cial Investigation Team (SIT) course of investigation, they into social media posts by have come across certain inAshoka University professor criminating materials, which Ali Khan Mahmudabad on Op- constitute separate offences eration Sindoor, the Supreme and the law will take its own Court on Wednesday observed course,” the bench said. “it had misdirected itself.” When the state’s lawyer said The court had ordered the Mahmudabad could be asked to setting up of the SIT to exam- join the investigation at any ine if there was anything in- point again, a surprised court criminating in the social media said, “You do not need him, you posts by Mahmudabad. need a dictionary .” In its interim report, The bench directed the SIT said it had the SIT to submit its reseized Mahmudabad’s port in four weeks. mobile phones and sent Granting some liberthem for forensic analyty and relaxation on his sis. It further revealed bail conditions, the that he had appeared court said Mahmudabefore the SIT for ques- A K Mahmudabad bad is now free to write tioning four times. on any subject other A bench of justices Surya than the matter pending before Kant and Joymalya Bagchi the court. wondered why the SIT was exSenior advocate Kapil Sibal, panding the scope of the probe. appearing for Mahmudabad, It said its direction was to con- told the court that the SIT had fine the investigation to the two also questioned the professor FIRs against Mahmudabad about the places he had travover his contentious social me- elled to in the past 10 years. dia posts. Mahmudabad had moved the “We are asking why SIT is, court challenging his arrest folon the face of it, misdirecting lowing a Facebook post on Opitself ? They were supposed to eration Sindoor, India’s retaliaexamine the contents of the tory strike against Pakistan for posts,” Justice Kant said. the Pahalgam terror attack. S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi HIT-AND-RUN NRI arrested for marathoner Fauja’s death H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh THE Punjab Police has arrested a 26-year-old Canadian NRI in the hit-and-run case of 114-yearold Fauja Singh, the oldest marathon runner in the world. Amarjit Singh Dhillon, a resident of Jalandhar district’s Dasupur village, was arrested on Tuesday night. His vehicle has been seized, and charges have been filed under sections 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Dhillon was driving from Bhogpur to Kishahgarh on Monday when he allegedly hit Singh on the highway in the veteran runner’s native village of Beas. The accused recently returned from Canada and purchased an SUV from a resident of Kapurthala. Senior SSP of Jalandhar (Rural) Harvinder Singh Virk said that on July 14, Singh left his house for his regular walk post lunch. As he reached the main road, he was hit by an unidentified vehicle, which then fled. Singh was picked-up by some people and rushed to a hospital but he could not be saved. AIR INDIA FUEL SWITCHES FINE, INSPECTION REVEALS An airline official said the carrier has completed inspection of locking mechanism of fuel control switches in Boeing 787 planes and found no issues EXPRESS READ 10 held for attacking Delhi police team Over 10 people were arrested after a mob attacked a Delhi Police team in Bulandshahr, UP. The team was there to arrest a fraud case suspect. P3 MDMA worth `12cr seized, kingpin held U’khand Police have busted a major international MDMA drug network, which was operating out of both U’khand and Mumbai and selling the drug in the global market. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a trade deal with India would soon be sealed under which American firms would get greater access to Indian markets. According to Trump, the trade pact with India will be on the lines of the US-Indonesia deal announced early in the day . “They are going to pay 19% and we are going to pay nothing … we will have full access into Indonesia, and we have a couple of those deals that are going to be announced,” Trump said, adding that the deal with India will be on the same line. India has not formally reacted to Trump’s claims, but officials say that the US president has the habit of making tall claims in public, which are far from reality. They cite the example of the Vietnam deal; Trump had claimed the South East Asian country had agreed to a 20% tariff, but Hanoi rejected the claim. India has maintained that it will not sign any deal that is against the country’s interest. New Delhi and Washington are in talks to finalise a trade deal before IT’S NOT A SETBACK: COUNSEL Lodhi-era ‘Gumti of Shaikh Ali’ to get ‘protected’ status S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Delhi government to issue a fresh notification to declare the historic Lodhi-era monument ‘Gumti of Shaikh Ali’ as a protected monument under law. A two-judge bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah passed the direction after hearing an appeal filed by Defence Colony resident Rajeev Suri, who sought a direction to declare the Gumti as a protected monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (AMASR Act). Suri had moved the SC after the Delhi HC dismissd his plea. It read the Delhi government’s reports and said and said it was not “happily (properly) worded”. “Let the notification be re-issued by the Delhi government,” the bench said. Clarifying that there should not be any illegal structures or encroachments near the area, the court asked the authorities to demolish the illegal structures, if any inside the monument site. , It directed the court commissioner to inspect the concerned area and apprise the bench about the work undertaken. Asking the Archaeology Department to prepare and execute plans to beautify and preserve the monument and its surrounding areas, the court reprimanded the MCD for continuing to operate an office near the monument and granted 48 hours to it to clear the site of “lock, stock, and barrel”. BRIGHT MOVES At women’s chess World Cup, China faces new threat—India S W A R O O P S W A M I N AT H A N @ Chennai THE Chinese women’s dominance of the 64 squares faces an existential threat from an upcoming force. India. At the ongoing women’s World Cup in Batumi, there are four from China in the last 16, including two World Championship runners-up. The reigning world champion, Ju Wenjun, declined to take part but they are still well represented, both in terms of quality and quantity . India, though, aren’t too far back. The gold medallists from last year’s Olympiad also have four players in the pre-quarterfinals. In the only direct confrontation between the two nations in the last-16, Divya Deshmukh took down Zhu Jiner (a GM) in the first tie (Deshmukh, an IM, is one of the country’s brightest prospects). In a queen-centric endgame versus Jiner, Deshmukh, an age-group world champion, completely asserted her posi- tion as her pieces had better coordination and were very active. After building up an imposing advantage, she played the decisive 49. Qf7+ and Jiner resigned on the spot. If the 19-year-old draws with black pieces on Thursday she will ad, vance to the quarterfinals. The teen was joined by young R Vaishali, seasoned D Harika and Koneru Humpy in the last 16 after the first three rounds in Georgia. The other three drew their opening ties and they will all advance if they win on Thursday. The women’s World Cup is important as it carries with it as many as three qualification places for next year’s women’s Candidates. Divya Deshmukh against Zhu Jiner at the event I FIDE/ ANNA SHTOURMAN CANDIDATES CALLING World Cup carries three qualification spots. Vaishali and Humpy played in 2024 but qualified through other pathways. If players qualify through World Cup, they can have 7-8 months to prepare “We do not see this as a setback, but as part of a longer process. Our goal is to bring the entire family around,” Chandran said. A source familiar with the negotiation said: “We are mounting a collective effort. Govt continues to provide help for conversation with the victim’s family for a settlement.” August 1, the new deadline for imposing the reciprocal tariff. The US has announced a 26% tariff on India, but has put on hold the tariff for now. Currently only a 10% , basic tariff is in place. An Indian team is in the US for carrying out the fifth round of negotiations on the bilateral trade agreement. Chief negotiator and commerce secretary-designate Rajesh Agrawal on Tuesday said that the Indo-US trade deal was progressing as per the terms of reference decided between the two countries agreed in February . The US has already announced reciprocal tariff between 25-40% against two dozen nations. Relative rejects blood money offer the death sentence, and negotiators are working on getEFFORTS are in full throttle ting the immediate family to to convince the family of Ta- collectively accept the blood lal Abdo Mahdi, the money offer. This manYe m e n i n a t i o n a l datory process could murdered in 2017, to be long and we need to accept blood money have patience,” her in return for sparing lawyer Subhash ChanIndian nurse Nimidran told this paper. sha Priya from execuHer execution, origition. This comes even nally scheduled for Nimisha Priya as one of Mahdi’s Wednesday was postfamily members pubponed following interlicly rejected reconciliation. ventions from various quar“We are making all efforts ters. In a Facebook post, to get Nimisha spared from Mahdi’s brother, Abdelfattah J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi Mahdi, condemned the delay and reaffirmed the family’s position: “Now it’s been postponed and we were not expecting that—unfortunately —especially that those who have stopped the implementation know our absolute refusal to any attempt to reconcile in any form... pressure won’t move us. Retribution will come.” Priya’s legal team and supporters are working to evolve consensus within the Mahdi family to accept blood money and pardon her.