Evidence Links Pahalgam Attackers to Pak: Security Sources

The evidence recovered by Indian agencies between July 28–29 corroborates Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement in the Lok Sabha on July 29, where he said the identities of the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam massacre had been conclusively traced to Pakistan.

"For the first time we have government-issued Pakistani documents in hand that nail the nationality of the Pahalgam attackers beyond doubt," Shah had stated.

Forensic, documentary, and testimonial evidence collected during and after Operation Mahadev confirmed that all three attackers were Pakistani nationals and senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives. They had been hiding in the Dachigam-Harwan forest belt since the day of the attack. No local Kashmiri was part of the shooting squad.

The terrorists were identified as:

Suleman Shah (code name Faizal Jatt), an A++ commander, mastermind, and lead shooter;

Abu Hamza (code name Afghan), an A- grade commander, second gunman;

Yasi (code name Jibran), an A- grade commander, third gunman and rear security.

As part of the evidence, Indian forces recovered Pakistan voter ID cards. Two laminated voter slips issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan were found in the pockets of Suleman Shah and Abu Hamza. The voter serial numbers, photographed and sent to Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), correspond to electoral rolls in Lahore (NA-125) and Gujranwala (NA-79).

Further, NADRA-linked Smart-ID chips were recovered. A micro-SD card from a damaged satellite phone contained biometric records—fingerprints, facial templates, family tree—linked to Pakistan's national database, confirming their identities and addresses in Changa Manga (Kasur district) and Koiyan village near Rawalakot, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Security forces also found Pakistan-manufactured personal items, including wrappers of Karachi-based chocolates in a rucksack containing spare magazines. The lot numbers were traced to a May 2024 consignment shipped to Muzaffarabad, PoK.

Authorities traced the terrorists’ movement leading up to the attack. They reportedly crossed the LoC near the Gurez sector, with the Intelligence Bureau intercepting their first radio check-in from the Pakistani side.

On April 21, the terrorists entered a seasonal hut (“dhok”) at Hill Park, about 2 km from Baisaran. Two detained Kashmiri helpers, Parvaiz and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, confessed to sheltering the attackers overnight and providing cooked food.

On the day of the attack, the terrorists trekked to Baisaran meadow. GPS waypoints recovered from Suleman Shah’s Garmin device matched the exact firing positions reported by eyewitnesses.

Following the massacre, the attackers fled northeast towards Dachigam. Investigators recovered shell casings at the scene, which matched the three AK-103 rifles recovered by Indian forces on July 28. Forensic tests confirmed that the striation marks on the 7.62x39 mm casings matched 100 per cent with the seized rifles.

DNA evidence also tied the attackers to the scene. Mitochondrial profiles extracted from blood on a torn shirt found at Pahalgam matched the DNA of the three bodies later recovered in Dachigam.

A satellite phone (IMEI 86761204-XXXXXX) used by the trio was tracked. It had been pinging Inmarsat-4 F1 every night between April 22 and July 25. Triangulation helped narrow the search grid to a 4 km² area inside Harwan forest.

Command-and-control links were traced to Sajid Saifullah Jatt, LeT's south-Kashmir operations chief and a resident of Changa Manga, Lahore. Voice samples from the recovered sat-phone matched his earlier intercepted calls.

Further confirmation came on July 29, when Rizwan Anees, LeT's Rawalakot chief, visited the families of the slain attackers to organise ghibana namaz (funeral prayers without bodies). Locals filmed the event, and the footage is now part of India’s official dossier.

On July 28, Indian security forces neutralised all three terrorists in Dachigam forest, ending the nearly 100-day-long manhunt for the perpetrators of the April 22 Pahalgam massacre, in which 26 civilians—mostly Hindu tourists—were gunned down at Baisaran meadow.