FRIDAY RUPEE GAINS 16 PAISE TO SETTLE AT 85.29 AGAINST THE US DOLLAR 25 A weak US dollar and decline in crude oil prices contributed to the rupee’s gain APRIL, 2025 Experts have forecast the expected trading range in the next few days to be 85 to 85.70, with support at 85.03 and resistance at 85.70 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard Rupee traded between 85.25 (intra-day high) and 85.67 (intra-day low) TA R I F F CHINA DENIES TALKS WITH US China on Thursday said it was not in active negotiations with the Trump administration over tariffs, saying any notion of progress was as groundless. PAGE 9 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI TOTAL SOLIDARITY National consensus emerged at all-party meetings to go after the terrorists. India briefed several nations on the cross-border terror India briefed envoys from several countries, including the US, the UK, France, China and Russia on the J&K attack and its crossborder terror linkage | P7 A day after announcing it, sources said the government issued an official notification holding the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance Kashmiri students in Himachal, Punjab and Uttarakhand allegedly abused and assaulted. Several students reportedly fled to safety | P8 BSF jawan P K Singh detained by Pak Rangers as he accidentally crossed the international border on Thursday; flag meeting on to secure release | P8 VOWS TO PUNISH TERRORISTS, THEIR BACKERS ‘BEYOND IMAGINATION’ PM’s strong message: India will wipe out ‘land of terror’ PAK SUSPENDS SIMLA AGREEMENT, SHUTS AIR SPACE FOR INDIA India will identify, track, and punish every terrorist and their backers. We’ll pursue them to the ends of the Earth E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the National Panchayati Raj Day programme, in Madhubani district, Bihar on Thursday | PMO/PTI R A M A S H A N K A R @ Patna IN his first public speech after the brutal attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday issued a stern warning to the perpetrators that they would be punished “beyond their imagination”. Addressing a rally in Bihar’s Madhubani district on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day , Modi said India would go after the terrorists and their handlers wherever they are. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth. We will ensure justice is done,” he said. It was Modi’s first public interaction after the Tuesday massacre, in which 26 people, 25 tourists and one local, were killed. In a message to Pakistan but without naming it, Modi said not just the terrorists but their sponsors will also get a punishment bigger than they could imagine. “Aatankiyon ke bachikhuchi jamin ko mitti mein milane ka samay aa gaya hai (It’s time to wipe out the remaining land of terror),” he said amid clapping from the crowd. Turning emotional during his speech, Modi said the Pahalgam attack was not on tourists but on India’s soul. He said India would not bow down to terrorism, asserting the entire nation is firm in this resolve. Switching to English during his speech, Modi said: “Today, from the soil of Bihar, I say to the whole world, India will identity, trace, and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.” The spirit and willpower of 140 crore Indians will break the back of patrons of terrorism, he added. MORE REPORTS ON P5,7 & 8 LONG TERM VISAS India clarified that the revocation of visas does not apply to the Long Term Visas (LTVs) already issued to Hindu Pak nationals, which remain valid ‘ATTACK MUST BE DECRIED’ India’s envoy to the UN, P Harish, said on Thursday the world must condemn the Pahalgam terror attack on civilians and tourists with no justification A day after India decided to suspend the Indus Water Treaty in response to crossborder links to the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office issued a stern warning and said any such move would be deemed an “act of war”. Pakistan also announced a series of retaliatory measures, including closure of its airspace for India and suspension of all trade activities apart from conditional suspension of the Simla Agreement, a peace treaty signed between India and Pakistan following the 1971 war. A key outcome of the agreement was the establishment of the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. Following a National Security Council meet chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan emphasised that suspending the Indus Water Treaty Shehbaz Sharif, would severe the “lifeline” Pakistan PM for 240 million Pakistanis. Pakistan said any threat to its sovereignty and the security of its people would be met with firm countermeasures. “Any attempt to disrupt or divert Pakistan’s rightful water flow under the Indus Waters Treaty, and any violation of the rights of the lower riparian, will be considered an Act of War and responded to with full force,” a statement read. Islamabad also shut the Wagah border crossing and halted all trade routes with India, including those through third countries. It asked all Indian nationals in Pakistan to leave within 48 hours, excluding Sikh pilgrims. Support amid posers at all-party meet Direct assault on Kashmiriyat, says Srinagar PREETHA NAIR AND RAJESH K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi AT an all-party meeting convened by the government on Thursday Opposi, tion MPs questioned the security lapses behind the Pahalgam massacre, but assured that they were with the Centre on combating terrorism. While the Centre gave a briefing on the Pahalgam carnage, several MPs demanded its immediate intervention to stop an all e g e d h at e c a m p a i g n launched by the BJP on social media. “The amity and unity of the people inside the country is more important,” said leaders, according to sources. Many Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of grave security lapses and intelligence failure. The government par- F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar Participants at an all-party meeting observe silence to pay homage to the victims of the Pahalgam massacre, in New Delhi on Thursday | ANI tially conceded the lapses, said sources. Rahul said, “How come there was no information with the police and the security agencies when thousands of tourists had travelling there? This is a security lapse,” said a source familiar with the developments. He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi ought to have been present at the meeting. Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, S Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Kiren Rijiju represented the government’s side. Speaking to this newspaper, CPI (M) MP MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said he flagged similar security lapses during the Pulwama attack in 2019. “But till date, we do not know what are the lapses and who was responsible.” Sources also said that leaders across party lines sought decisive action for destroying terror camps. There were calls to take over PoK, they added. AN all-party meeting here on Thursday passed a unanimous resolution condemning the terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam and supporting all efforts in bringing the perpetrators to justice. “Such cowardly acts of brutality against peaceful citizens have no place in society and are a direct assault on the values of Kashmiriyat, and the idea of India. We stand unwavering in our commitment to support all efforts in bringing these perpetrators to justice,” the resolution read. It also said it supports the steps taken by the Central government. P7  J8.00  PAGES 12 Expect rupee to trade with a positive bias as weakness in the US dollar is likely to remain intact amid trade tariff uncertainties. Sentiments in global markets and FII inflows may support rupee at lower levels. Anuj Choudhary, Mirae Asset Sharekhan Traders said heightened geopolitical tensions, following the terror attack in Pahalgam weighed on market sentiment. PM Narendra Modi on Thursday declared that the killers of Pahalgam will be pursued “to the ends of the earth” and promised to “identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers”. Mayor polls today, Godhra case: SC to hear BJP all set to take pleas of Gujarat govt, charge of MCD convicts on May 6 & 7 A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi THE BJP is set to reclaim power in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Friday, with AAP boycotting elections for the mayor and deputy mayor. Though the Congress said it would contest the elections, the BJP is expected to win the top posts and is poised to have a triple-engine government in the city The BJP was in power . in the civic body from 2007 to December 2022. BJP’s Raja Iqbal Singh is the party’s nominee for the mayoral post, while Jai Bhagwan is in the fray for deputy mayor. “The people have entrusted the BJP with the responsibility of fixing the city’s problems. AAP has already accepted its defeat. We will eliminate corruption and complete all the pending work that was stalled,” Singh said. AAP councillor and former mayor Shelly Oberoi told the media on Thursday, “We will completely boycott the MCD election scheduled for Friday The BJP has turned the civic . polls into a farce.” The current strength of the MCD is 238, with 12 seats vacant after some councillors were elected to the Assembly Of the 250 seats, the . BJP has 113 councillors, up from 104 in 2022, while the AAP’s tally has dropped to 116 from 134. The Congress has eight seats, while one councillor is independent. The electoral college for the mayoral election includes 238 councillors, 10 MPs (seven from the Lok Sabha and three from the Rajya Sabha), and 14 MLAs. Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta nominated 11 BJP and three AAP MLAs as electors. 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 Thursday decided to commence on May 6 and 7 the final hearing on the appeals filed by the Gujarat government and several convicts against the Gujarat High Court’s 2017 order in the 2002 Godhra train bur ning case. The dates were fixed by a two-judge bench, led by Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Rajesh Bindal. The HC upheld the sentences of 31 convicts in the case and commuted the death penalties of 11 of them to life terms. Challenging the order, the Gujarat government moved SC seeking death penalty to the 11 convicts. Similarly, the convicts who received life sentences from the HC had approached the SC seeking acquittal. During the hearing on Thursday, the SC asked senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for one of the convicts, to file a revised compilation of his submissions by May 3 containing “heading-wise” details on the charges against the convict, the findings of the courts below, and his arguments supported by materials on record to counter them. The SC also asked lawyers for other convicts and the Gujarat government to file a revised preliminary compilation on similar lines. In one of the earlier hearings, the SC asked the parties to translate the Gujarati court records into English and digitise them so that they would be accessible to all concerned parties. It clarified that this would help all parties better understand the proceedings. EXPRESS READ Gehlot cabinet minister arrested by ED in JJM scam The ED arrested senior Congress leader and former minister in the Ashok Gehlot cabinet Mahesh Joshi on Thursday in connection with the multi-crore Jal Jeevan Mission scam in Rajasthan. Gehlot launched a scathing attack on BJP, calling Joshi’s arrest as “political vendetta”.