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Security agencies gather evidence confirming Pakistani nationality of Pahalgam attackers

Srinagar, Aug 4 (PTI) 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). 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 April 21, 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 April 22 and July 25. 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 April 24. However, after the July 28 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 July 29 to organise 'Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza' (funeral prayers in absentia) and its footage is now part of the Indian dossier, they said. PTI SKL DIV DIV

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