The terrorists, recognized as senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives, have been killed in an encounter with safety forces in Dachigam forest on the outskirts of Srinagar on July 28 throughout an operation code-named ‘Mahadev’. They had been hiding within the Dachigam-Harwan forest belt because the April 22 assault in Pahalgam’s Baisaran meadow, which claimed 26 lives.
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The proof collected reveals that no native was amongst these terrorists, the officers mentioned.
Biometric information of Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), voter id slips and digital satellite tv for pc telephone knowledge, together with logs and GPS waypoints, are among the many clinching proof gathered by the safety businesses confirming the Pakistani nationality of the three terrorists, the officers mentioned.
They mentioned the post-encounter investigation, together with ballistics weapon-to-cartridge match and statements of two detained Kashmiri helpers, corroborated the terrorists’ involvement within the Pahalgam assault.
“For the first time, we have government-issued Pakistani documents in hand that nail the nationality of the Pahalgam attackers beyond doubt,” a senior official mentioned.
Forensic, documentary and testimonial proof collected throughout and after ‘Operation Mahadev’ conclusively reveals that each one three attackers have been Pakistani nationals and senior LeT operatives who had been hiding within the Dachigam-Harwan forest belt because the day of the assault, the officers mentioned, including that no Kashmiri was a part of the capturing workforce.
The slain terrorists have been recognized as Suleman Shah alias “Faizal Jatt”, an A++ class terrorist, mastermind and lead shooter; his shut affiliate Abu Hamza alias ‘Afghan’, an A-grade commander and the second gunman; and Yasir alias ‘Jibran’, additionally an A-grade commander and the third gunman, the officers mentioned.
Along with weapons, the safety forces recovered Pakistani government-issued paperwork, comparable to two laminated voter slips issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan, from the pockets of Shah and Hamza, they mentioned.
According to the officers, the voter serial numbers correspond to electoral rolls in Lahore (NA-125) and Gujranwala (NA-79), respectively.
The officers mentioned the NADRA-linked Smart-ID chips — a micro-SD recovered from a broken sat-phone contained the NADRA biometric information (fingerprints, facial template, household tree) of all three males — confirming their Pakistani citizenship and addresses in Changa Manga (Kasur district) and Koiyan village close to Rawalakot, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Pakistan-manufactured private objects like wrappers of ‘CandyLand’ and ‘ChocoMax’ goodies (each manufacturers produced in Karachi) have been present in the identical rucksack that carried spare magazines, the officers mentioned, including that lot numbers printed on wrappers have been traced to a May 2024 consignment shipped to Muzaffarabad, PoK.
On forensic and technical affirmation, the officers mentioned, the 7.62×39 mm casings present in Baisaran have been test-fired towards the three AK-103 rifles seized on July 28 and the striation marks matched 100— whereas mitochondrial profiles extracted from blood on a torn shirt present in Pahalgam have been equivalent to the DNA of the three our bodies of the terrorists.
The terrorists crossed the Line of Control (LoC) by means of north Kashmir’s Gurez sector in May 2022, when the intelligence intercepts positioned their radio check-in from the Pakistani aspect, the officers mentioned.
On April 21, they moved right into a ‘dhok’ (seasonal hut) at Hill Park, 2 km from Baisaran, as was acknowledged by two detained helpers, Parvaiz and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, who sheltered them in a single day and supplied them cooked meals earlier than they trekked to Baisaran the subsequent day to hold out the assault.
The GPS waypoints recovered from Shah’s Garmin system match the precise firing positions reported by eyewitnesses, the officers mentioned, including that they escaped in the direction of Dachigam after finishing up the assault.
The shell casings on the scene matched the three rifles recovered from the terrorists after the encounter, the officers mentioned.
On digital footprints, they mentioned a Huawei satellite tv for pc telephone (IMEI 86761204-XXXXXX) utilized by the terrorists had been pinging Inmarsat-4 F1 each evening between April 22 and July 25. Triangulation narrowed the search grid to 4 sq. kilometres inside Harwan forest.
Jammu and Kashmir Police launched sketches of three folks — Hashim Musa, Ali Bhai alias “Talha”, and native Adil Hussain Thoker — on April 24. However, after the July 28 encounter, the businesses clarified that these sketches have been based mostly on {a photograph} discovered on a telephone retrieved from an unrelated December 2024 shootout and the precise attackers have been totally different.
Another essential proof of Pakistan’s involvement within the assault was the command and management hyperlinks contained in the neighbouring nation, the officers mentioned.
They mentioned LeT’s south-Kashmir operations chief, Sajid Saifullah Jatt of Changa Manga in Lahore, was the general handler as his voice samples from the recovered sat-phone matched his earlier intercepted calls.
LeT Rawalakot chief Rizwan Anees additionally visited the households of the slain attackers on July 29 to organise ‘Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza’ (funeral prayers in absentia) and its footage is now a part of the Indian file, they mentioned.
