FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms Vol. 15 No. 251 | BHOPAL | MONDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2026 | Pages 12 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 FREE www.freepressjournal.in ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL UJJAIN PRESS PUNE INDORE NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper FP MINI MARATHON 2026| Breaking away from their usual Sunday routines, NEARLY 3,000 people from diverse backgrounds took part in the Free Press Save Water Mini Marathon 2026. The run, centred on the theme ‘Save Water’, witnessed enthusiastic participation, with Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Rakesh Singhai and Atal Bihari Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis Vice Chairman Rajiv Dixit , flagging off the marathon and urging citizens to adopt responsible water conservation practices Pic Anand Shivre See page 12 PAN-INDIA MODULE BUSTED | Group was being handled from B’desh by Shabir Ahmad Lone, a trained LeT terrorist from J&K 8 LeT operatives with Bangladesh links held PTI NEW DELHI In a major counter-terror operation spanning three states, the Delhi Police has dismantled a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) module comprising eight operatives, including seven Bangladeshi nationals who had illegally entered India and procured forged identity documents, an official said on Sunday. The arrests followed coordinated raids in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, after investigators traced the group's involvement in putting up pro-Pakistan and pro-terror posters, showcasing terrorist Burhan Wani, at multiple lo- Bhojshala case hearing at Indore Bench today Our Staff Reporter INDORE JeM commander among 3 killed Three members of the Pakistanbased Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district on Sunday, officials said. The bodies of all the slain terrorists were charred beyond recognition as the mud house they were hiding in caught fire during the gunfight, they said, adding that preliminary assessments by security agencies suggest that one of the deceased is Saifullah, a notorious JeM commander. 4Continued on | P8 cations in Delhi. According to police, the module was being handled from Bangladesh by Shabir Ahmad Lone alias Raja alias Kashmiri, a trained LeT terrorist from Jammu and Kash- PTI India and the US have decided to reschedule the proposed meeting of their chief negotiators, supposed to be held in Washington from Monday, to finalise the text for the interim trade pact, sources said on Sunday. The Indian team was scheduled to start the three-day meeting on February 23 in the US. Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, Darpan Jain, is the chief negotiator of India for this agreement. “With regards to the visit of the Indian team of negotiators to the US for the India-US trade deal, the two sides are of the view that the proposed visit of the Indian Chief Negotiator and the team be scheduled after each side has had the time to evaluate the latest developments and their implications. The meeting will be rescheduled at a mutually convenient date,” the Commerce Ministry sources said. The development is important following the US Supreme Court's verdict against sweeping import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on trade partners. 4Continued on | P8 Portion of 4-lane rly overbridge collapses ‘If want tariffs, go to US Congress’ Agencies WASHINGTON, DC Prominent Indian-American litigator Neal Katyal has raised significant legal questions regarding President Donald Trump's decision to impose a 15 per cent global tariff, pointing to a direct contradiction with previous arguments made by the Department of Justice (DOJ). 4Continued on | P8 Rajagopalachari’s statue to replace Lutyens’s at Rashtrapati Bhavan PTI NEW DELHI reported.  The railway overbridge, constructed around four to five years ago, had started  shown signs of trouble since last year. A portion of the bridge had been damaged in December last year and was shut down for repairs.  However, the administration had allowed traffic movement on the other side of the bridge. On Sunday, the operational portion of the bridge also collapsed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Sunday that a statue of British architect Edwin Lutyens, which has stood in Rashtrapati Bhavan, will be replaced by a statue of C Rajagopalachari, the first Indian governor-general of independent India. During his monthly radio address, 'Mann Ki Baat', Modi noted that, unfortunately, even after independence, statues of British administrators remained in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, while those of India's great leaders were not honoured with a place there. However, the country is moving away from symbols of colonial rule and is beginning to embrace symbols of Indian culture, the prime minister stated. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 BHOPAL Tiger released into the wild Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve officials released an 8-year-old tiger into the wild on Sunday. The tiger was found in an injured condition in January from North Shahdol. See Page2 4Continued on | P8 India-US trade deal: Chief negotiators meet rescheduled NEW DELHI The batch of petitions related to the disputed Bhojshala case will be taken up for hearing by Indore Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday. A Division Bench comprising Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla and Justice Alok Awasthi will take up the petitions for hearing. This follows apex court’s order dated January 22, 2026, passed on a special leave petition in the matter of Maulana Kamaluddin Welfare Society, Dhar vs Hindu Front for Justice & Others. In that order, the apex court had directed that the pending writ petitions be taken up by a Division Bench of the MP HC within three weeks, preferably presided over by the Chief Justice or the senior-most judge of the Bench. On February 18, a bench led by MPHC Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva transferred the petitions to the Indore bench for hearing. mir who was previously arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell in 2007 in a case involving the recovery of arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 rifle and grenades, Additional Commissioner of Po- lice (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah said. He said Lone, who hails from Kangan in Srinagar, had fled to Bangladesh after his release from Tihar Jail in 2018 and was working to revive the LeT's terror network in India by activating sleeper cells of Bangladeshi operatives residing illegally in the country. "The investigation began on February 8, after a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) shift in-charge submitted a written complaint at the Supreme Court Metro police station regarding pro-Pakistan and pro-terror posters pasted at the Janpath metro station. FP News Service JABALPUR A portion of a four-lane railway overbridge collapsed on Sunday in Shahpura—around 30 kilometres away from Jabalpur—disrupting traffic movement along National Highway-45 for hours.  The overbridge was maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). As per officials, no one was injured and no casualties were Tribal woman attempts self-immolation FP News Service Cong used AI summit for dirty, naked politics: Modi BHERUNDA PTI A 26-year-old tribal woman allegedly attempted self-immolation following a domestic dispute in Ladkui village on Sunday morning. A video of the incident has reportedly gone viral on social media, said police. According to police, the woman, identified as Vinita Barela, reportedly poured petrol on herself and set herself ablaze after an argument with her husband, Vijay Barela. 4Continued on | P8 MEERUT Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday slammed the Congress over its "shirtless" protest at the global artificial intelligence summit in Delhi, alleging that the party had turned an international event into an arena for its "gandi aur nangi" (dirty and shameless) politics. Addressing a public gathering after inaugurating development projects, including the Namo Bharat rail and the Meerut Metro Rail ‘AI Summit a turning point in use of tech’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the India AI Impact Summit proved to be a turning point in the trajectory of how the world will utilise the power of artificial intelligence in the future, and asserted that global leaders were impressed with the breakthroughs achieved by India in the domain. In his monthly radio broadcast Mann Ki Baat, Modi also asked people to remain vigilant against online financial fraud and digital arrest, and appealed to all to comply with requests from banks for doing KYC (know your customer) as it is crucial for an individual's bank account's safety. extension in Meerut, the prime minister said the Congress' conduct showed how "ideologically bankrupt and impoverished” the party had become. 4Continued on | P8