Srinagar: 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 an encounter with security forces in Dachigam forest on the outskirts of Srinagar on July 28 during an operation code-named ‘Mahadev’. They had been hiding in the Dachigam-Harwan forest belt since the April 22 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).
