New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) Witness identifications, a midnight flight to facilitate forensic ballistics of weapons recovered from the three terrorists killed in Dachigam, Srinagar, and an early morning confirmation from scientists that the trio carried out the Pahalgam attack — all this happened in less than 24 hours.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday gave a blow-by-blow account in the Lok Sabha of ‘Operation Mahadev’ undertaken by the security forces and culminated on Monday with the killing of the three terrorists.
Indian agencies have “ample” evidence to say that these were Pakistani terrorists affiliated to the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Shah told the House.
He said ‘Operation Mahadev’ began on May 22 as part of a security plan that was drawn a day after the terrorists gunned down 26 civilians in the April 22 attack in the scenic Baisaran valley of Pahalgam.
The first decision taken in the security review meeting held on April 23 was to ensure that the “brutal killers” should “not be allowed” to escape to Pakistan.
Shah said it all began after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) received a “human intelligence” on May 22 about the presence of some terrorists in the Dachigam forest and the agency, along with the Army, deployed “indigenous” instruments to capture their signals and verify the said information.
The sensors picked up the presence of the terrorists after “five human assets” were sent to Dachigam on July 22 and the Army’s elite 4 PARA commando unit along with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police surrounded them, he said.
The three terrorists were neutralised by the joint team of security forces. When their bodies were brought to Srinagar, “four people” identified them, the minister said.
“We were not satisfied yet (if these were the terrorists who carried out the Pahalgam attack)…,” Shah said, adding that a special plane took off from Srinagar around Monday midnight and landed in Chandigarh with the three rifles seized from the terrorists.
The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Chandigarh had already analysed the bullet shells recovered from the Pahalgam attack site and the experts at the facility fired “all night” from the three rifles flown in from Srinagar to generate more bullet shells, he said.
The two sets of bullets matched and it was established that it was these guns and terrorists who killed the innocents in Pahalgam, he said.
Waving the ballistic report in the House, Shah said six scientists “cross-checked” it and they confirmed its findings in a video call to him at 4:46 am on Tuesday.
The scientists told me that these were “100 per cent those bullets which were fired in Pahalgam”, he said.
On the investigation underway in this case, Shah said the government handed over the probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)/The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the attack.
The TRF is the LeT’s frontal organisation.
He said the NIA undertook a “long and tiring” investigation spanning 3,000 hours and questioned 1,055 people, including the family members of those killed in the attack, tourists, ponywallahs, photographers, various shopkeepers present in the area and their employees.
A sketch was made on the basis of these discussions and questioning. On May 22, Bashir and Parvez, who provided shelter and food to these terrorists, were identified. They were arrested by the NIA.
The two told the NIA that they kept the terrorists in their ‘dhok’ (hut), about 2 km from Baisaran valley, when they came to them around 8 pm on April 21. Two of them wore black overalls while the third was in disguise.
They also told the NIA that the terrorists carried three sophisticated rifles. They ate food, had tea and also took some eatables, salt, chilli and spices when they left.
Shah said the mother of the two arrested men also “identified” the bodies of the three terrorists, apart from some others who helped them.
He said the forces have recovered Pakistani voter IDs from two of the slain terrorists, apart from some Pakistan-made chocolates.
He identified the terrorists as LeT commander Suleiman alias Faizal Jat, Jibran and Afghani.
Shah said they all were ‘A’ grade terrorists and some of them were also involved in the October 2024 ‘Z Morh’ tunnel attack in Ganderbal district. PTI NES DIV DIV
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