THE SUNDAY N AT I O N A L PRESS DAY Vol. 37 No. 08 | Sunday, November 16, 2025 30 Pages | `5 & for State `6 | Reg. No. MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 46955/1988 M.p.c.s. office Mumbai-400001 FREE PRESS JOURNAL INDIA EDITION | www.freepressjournal.in ● Leader in E-paper circulation Weekend Baramulla director Aditya Jambhale on telling stories that matter WEEKEND Play & Pause Spirituality and modern parenting Ahead of Int’l Men’s Day, dig deep into ‘rain shadow’ zones of men 9 die and 32 others are injured while investigating explosives material seized in Faridabad related to the Delhi blast case Accidental blast in police station outside Srinagar Sunday Read Stories of the past retold for today ‘NDA won with 10% margin’ Agencies SURAT Nine people were killed and 32 others injured in an ‘accidental’ blast inside the Nowgam police station on the outskirts of Srinagar on Friday at 11.20 pm in the compound of the police station, where an explosive material was dumped. Director General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, Nalin Prabhat, on Saturday, confirmed that the explosion was accidental and explained the circumstances that led to the tragedy. An inquiry has also been ordered. Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, DGP Prabhat said the explosion involved a large quantity of explosives that had been recovered from Faridabad during the ongoing investigation into the Delhi blast. He claimed that the material had been stored at the police station as part of standard procedure. He said the explosives were extremely sensitive and unstable, and the sampling and examination were being carried out with great caution. “Despite all precautions, an accidental blast occurred last night, resulting CSK CHURN Jadeja out, Samson in Haridev Pushparaj MUMBAI Chennai Super Kings made a seismic call on  Saturday, trading Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to Rajasthan Royals to bring Sanju Samson to Chepauk — a decision the franchise says was painful but necessary. CSK chief executive Kasi Viswanathan spoke plainly: the team needed a quality Indian top-order batter and, with limited options at the mini-auction, the trade window offered the clearest route. Jadeja’s exit will sting. He spent 12 seasons with CSK, appearing in 186 matches, taking 143 wickets and scoring 2,198 runs. He won three IPL titles for Chennai and, briefly in 2022, wore the captain’s armband. More than statistics, Jadeja symbolised CSK’s grit and balance — a dependable all-rounder who turned matches with bat, ball and electric fielding. Fans have flooded CSK with messages of disbelief and sorrow; the emotional response is real and justified. Viswanathan did not shy from the raw facts. 4Contd on | Nation in the tragic loss of nine lives and 29 others injured,” he said, adding that the investigation that led to the recovery of the explosives is still underway. Over 360 kilograms of explosive materials were seized in Faridabad’s Dhauj village that led to the unravelling of a white collar terror module. It is unclear when or how such a large quantity of explosive materials were transported to Nowgam and whether it is the standard practice to do so. Also unclear is what triggered the accidental explosion. The DGP said the nine de- ceased included one State Investigating Agency official, three FSCL personnel, two crime photographers, two revenue officials and one tailor. 4Contd on | Nation 4See also | Nation US cuts tariffs on food imports AP WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he was removing U.S. tariffs on beef, coffee, tropical fruits and a wide range of other commodities, marking a major step back from one of his most prominent economic policies. The move comes as pressure mounts on the administration to address high consumer prices, which have become a central concern for voters. Trump, who has built his second term around imposing Trump on Friday removed tariffs not only on beef, coffee and tropical fruits, but also on tea, fruit juice, cocoa, spices, bananas, oranges, tomatoes and certain fertilisers. heavy tariffs on foreign goods to boost domestic production, decided that off-year elections this month showed voters prioritising economic issues. Democrats scored major victories in states including Virginia and New Jersey, and have argued that Trump’s policies have contributed to rising grocery bills. Speaking aboard Air Force One after the announcement, Trump said his administration had done “a little bit of a rollback on some foods like coffee.” When asked whether his tariffs had helped push prices higher, he admitted, “I say they may, in some cases,” but added that “to a large extent they’ve been borne by other countries.” 4Contd on | Nation UP seeks to drop charges AKHLAQ CASE Biswajeet Banerjee LUCKNOW The Uttar Pradesh government has moved to withdraw all criminal charges, including murder, against the ten men accused of lynching Mohammad Akhlaq in Bisahda village near Dadri in 2015. The withdrawal application was filed before the Upper Sessions Court in Gautam Buddha Nagar in October 2025, following state government directions issued in August and subsequent written approval from the Governor. The accused face prosecution under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code — murder, attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult and criminal intimidation. Among them is Vishal Rana, son of a local BJP leader. The trial, which has stretched on for nearly a decade, has seen numerous adjournments, witness examinations, and repeated attempts by the defence to contest the admissibility of key evidence. In its application, the government has invoked Section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This provision empowers a public prosecutor to withdraw from a prosecution with the sanction of the state government when such withdrawal is deemed necessary in the public interest and in the interest of justice. 4Contd on | Nation How Saudi Arabia is wooing B’wood Ashwin Ahmad RIYADH Saudi Arabia is stepping up its soft power outreach to India, with a special focus on Bollywood. The Kingdom recently hosted an “India Week” at the Global Harmony Initiative run by the Saudi Ministry of Media, where Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor performed. According to Indian embassy officials, cultural exchanges between the two countries have grown rapidly, in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan. A A scene from movie Dunki senior diplomat said that as Saudi Arabia shifts towards a post-oil economy, it wants to build a creative economy where revenue can come from film and music festi- vals, and Bollywood is expected to play a major role in that transition. Saudi Arabia’s push towards Bollywood has been developing for several years. In 2022, Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan Al Saud visited India to explore possible collaborations in cinema. In a tweet, he described his meetings with Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan as “fruitful”, adding that they discussed opportunities for partnerships between Saudi and Indian cinema. Since then, several Bollywood films have used Saudi Arabia as a shooting location. 4Contd on | Nation Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI M Saleem Pandit SRINAGAR EXIT POLLS GOT IT ALL WRONG YET AGAIN A day after the National Democratic Alliance’s sweeping triumph in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his brief halt at Surat airport to deliver a sharp, celebratory — and unmistakably combative — political message. The Bihar mandate, he declared, was nothing short of a referendum on development, and the extent of the victory left “no scope for confusion.” The NDA’s win — 202 of 243 seats — came with a 10 per cent vote margin over the Mahagathbandhan, a gap the Prime Minister called “historic” and “decisive.” For him, the numbers told an uncomplicated story: the average voter had rejected caste arithmetic and rewarded the promise of progress. “This election reflected Bihar’s hunger for development,” Modi said, adding that women and youth forged a “powerful combination” that will influence India’s politics for decades. 4Contd on | Nation In both the 2015 and 2020 Bihar Assembly elections a majority of the exit polls had either failed to gauge the magnitude of the wave in one direction correctly or the direction of the results correctly and this time too the pollsters failed miserably in reading the mood of the voters as reflected in the final result. While at least 10 exit polls had projected a win for the National Democratic Alliance, led by chief minister Nitish Kumar, their numbers ended up way Exit polls had predicted that the NDA would win between 130 and 167 seats. It ended up winning 202 off the mark. These exit polls had predicted that the NDA would win between 130 and 167 seats in the 243-member House, voting for which was held in two phases on November 6 and 11. But the magnitude of the NDA win was far more than the exit polls foresaw. The NDA ended up winning 202 seats whereas the Mahagathbandhan which was projected to win 70 to 100 seats had to rest content with a mere 35 seats. In terms of vote share, while the exit polls had stated that NDA would get around 45 per cent in comparison to MGB’s 43 per cent, the final percentage showed NDA getting 46.7 per cent of the votes polled as against MGB’s 37.5 per cent. 4Contd on | Nation 4See also | Nation Highest vote share for RJD but is third in seat tally Dheeraj Kumar PATNA The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the main opposition party in Bihar, secured the highest vote share in the 2025 Assembly election but still finished third in the overall seat tally. In contrast, the BJP emerged as the largest party, winning 89 of the 101 seats it contested. Despite leading the vote share, RJD slipped to the third position in terms of seats won. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) se- cured a three-fourths majority by winning 202 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan managed only 35. Among individual parties, the BJP topped the seat tally with 89 seats, followed by the JD(U) with 85 seats and the RJD with 25. Other results included LJP (RV) with 19 seats, Congress with 6, AIMIM and HAM with 5 each, RLM with 4, CPI(ML) with 2, and IIP, CPI(M) and BSP with one seat each. According to the Election Commission, RJD received 23 % of the vote share, slightly down from the 23.11 % it secured in the 2020 election, when it had emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats. Around 1.15 crore voters supported RJD candidates this time. The BJP, which became the single largest party in the 2025 polls with 89 seats, received 20.08 % of the votes, an improvement from 19.46 % in 2020. A total of 1,00,81,143 people voted for BJP candidates. 4Contd on | Nation 4See also | Nation