Security agencies confirm Pakistani nationality of Pahalgam attackers
The terrorists, identified as senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Dachigam forest on the outskirts of Srinagar on 28 July during an operation code-named 'Mahadev'.
PTI
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Army personnel keep vigil near the encounter site at Lidwas Meadows following ‘Operation Mahadev’ in Dachigam forest area, in Srinagar
Srinagar, 4 Aug
Security agencies
have gathered evidence, including documents issued by the government of
Pakistan and biometric data, confirming that the three slain foreign terrorists
involved in the deadly Pahalgam attack were Pakistani nationals, officials said
on Monday.
The terrorists,
identified as senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives, were killed in anencounter with security forces in Dachigam forest on the outskirts of Srinagar
on 28 July during an operation code-named 'Mahadev'. They had been hiding in
the Dachigam-Harwan forest belt since the 22 April attack in Pahalgam's
Baisaran meadow, which claimed 26 lives.
The evidence
collected shows that no local was among these terrorists, the officials said.
Biometric records of
Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), voter identity
slips and digital satellite phone data, including logs and GPS waypoints, are
among the clinching evidence gathered by the security agencies confirming the
Pakistani nationality of the three terrorists, the officials said.
They said the
post-encounter investigation, including ballistics weapon-to-cartridge match
and statements of two detained Kashmiri helpers, corroborated the terrorists'
involvement in the Pahalgam attack.
"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
said.
Forensic, documentary
and testimonial evidence collected during and after 'Operation Mahadev'
conclusively shows that all three attackers were Pakistani nationals and senior
LeT operatives who had been hiding in the Dachigam-Harwan forest belt since the
day of the attack, the officials said, adding that no Kashmiri was part of the
shooting team.
The slain terrorists
were identified as Suleman Shah alias "Faizal Jatt", an A++ category
terrorist, mastermind and lead shooter; his close associate Abu Hamza alias
'Afghan', an A-grade commander and the second gunman; and Yasir alias 'Jibran',
also an A-grade commander and the third gunman, the officials said.
Along with weapons,
the security forces recovered Pakistani government-issued documents, such as
two laminated voter slips issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan, from
the pockets of Shah and Hamza, they said.
According to the
officials, the voter serial numbers correspond to electoral rolls in Lahore
(NA-125) and Gujranwala (NA-79), respectively.
The officials said
the NADRA-linked Smart-ID chips -- a micro-SD recovered from a damaged
sat-phone contained the NADRA biometric records (fingerprints, facial template,
family tree) of all three men -- confirming their Pakistani citizenship and
addresses in Changa Manga (Kasur district) and Koiyan village near Rawalakot,
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Pakistan-manufactured personal items like wrappers of 'CandyLand' and 'ChocoMax' chocolates (both
brands produced in Karachi) were found in the same rucksack that carried spare
magazines, the officials said, adding that lot numbers printed on wrappers were
traced to a May 2024 consignment shipped to Muzaffarabad, PoK.
On forensic and
technical confirmation, the officials said, the 7.62x39 mm casings found in
Baisaran were test-fired against the three AK-103 rifles seized on July 28 and
the striation marks matched 100 per cent while mitochondrial profiles extracted
from blood on a torn shirt found in Pahalgam were identical to the DNA of the
three bodies of the terrorists.
The terrorists
crossed the Line of Control (LoC) through north Kashmir's Gurez sector in May
2022, when the intelligence intercepts placed their radio check-in from the
Pakistani side, the officials said.
On 21 April, they
moved into a 'dhok' (seasonal hut) at Hill Park, 2 km from Baisaran, as was
stated by two detained helpers, Parvaiz and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, who sheltered
them overnight and provided them cooked food before they trekked to Baisaran
the next day to carry out the attack.
The GPS waypoints
recovered from Shah's Garmin device match the exact firing positions reported
by eyewitnesses, the officials said, adding that they escaped towards Dachigam
after carrying out the attack.
The shell casings at
the scene matched the three AK-103 rifles recovered from the terrorists after
the encounter, the officials said.
On digital
footprints, they said a Huawei satellite phone (IMEI 86761204-XXXXXX) used by
the terrorists had been pinging Inmarsat-4 F1 every night between 22 April and 25
July. Triangulation narrowed the search grid to four square kilometres inside
Harwan forest.
Jammu and Kashmir
Police released sketches of three people -- Hashim Musa, Ali Bhai alias
"Talha", and local Adil Hussain Thoker -- on 24 April. However, after
the 28 July encounter, the agencies clarified that those sketches were based on
a photograph found on a phone retrieved from an unrelated December 2024
shootout and the actual attackers were different.
Another crucial
evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the attack was the command and control
links inside the neighbouring country, the officials said.
They said LeT's
south-Kashmir operations chief, Sajid Saifullah Jatt of Changa Manga in Lahore,
was the overall handler as his voice samples from the recovered sat-phone
matched his earlier intercepted calls.
LeT Rawalakot chief
Rizwan Anees also visited the families of the slain attackers on 29 July to
organise 'Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza' (funeral prayers in absentia) and its
footage is now part of the Indian dossier, they said.
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