3 terrorists who carried out Pahalgam attack killed: Amit Shah
'I want to inform the house that the security forces, the army, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Jammu and Kashmir police (J&K), as part of Operation Mahadev, on Monday, have eliminated the three terrorists – Suleiman Shah, [Hamza] Afghan, and Jibran [Bhai] – who brutally killed the innocent civilians in front of their families after asking about their religion in Pahalgam. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, through Operation Sindoor, ensured that their masters were eliminated,' Shah said, referring to India's response to the April 22 terror strike.
Also read: Pakistan's N-threats failed, no world leader told us to stop: PM Modi
The terrorists' identities, the home minister said on Tuesday, were confirmed by four individuals including Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, who harboured them and gave them food a day before the attack. The duo was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on June 22.
Commenting on the Pakistani connection, Shah said the forces have found two Pakistani voter IDs from two terrorists and chocolates made in Pakistan. He added that 'the weapons recovered from Dachigam on Monday, one M9 [M4] carbine and 2 AK 47 rifles, were flown to Chandigarh on Monday night in a special flight for examination at the Chandigarh Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL). The shells found at the Pahalgam attack site were matched with the barrels of the rifles and experts confirmed that these rifles were used in Pahalgam attack.'
The weapons, Shah said in his speech, came from Pakistan.
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'We have all the evidence that these three were Pakistanis. Pakistani voter numbers of two of them are available. The rifles and chocolates found with them were also made in Pakistan,' Shah said.
The minister's remarks were part of his speech in the Lok Sabha during the discussion on Operation Sindoor, India's response to the terror attack; 26 people, 25 of them Indian were killed by terrorists belonging to The Resistance Front, a proxy for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and in response, India bombed terror hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir on May 6, and, when Pakistan retaliated by unsuccesfully targeting Indian civilian and military installations, following up with attacks on Pakistani military installations, including air bases. Pakistan finally sued for peace on May 10, following which the two sides announced a ceasefire. India's defence minister Rajnath Singh has said India killed around 100 terrorists in its first attack.
In the course of his speech, Shah targeted former Union home minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram for suggesting in an interview that there was no proof that the terrorists were from Pakistan.
'The former home minister of the country is giving clean chit to Pakistan in front of the whole world and by doing so, he is also raising the question that why did we attack Pakistan? The whole world, wherever our MPs went, has accepted that the Pahalgam terrorist attack was carried out by Pakistan. The former home minister of the country asks for proof of this... today the 140 crore people of the country have come to know about their conspiracy to defend Pakistan,' Shah said.
Shah also criticised the Congress for being soft on terror and on Pakistan.
'During the rule of the opposition party from 2005 to 2011, terrorists carried out 27 heinous attacks in which about 1,000 people were killed, but what did the then government do? I challenge Rahul Gandhi to stand up in the house and tell the country what steps the then government took against those terrorist attacks. They just kept sending photos and dossiers to Pakistan,' Shah said.
He blamed the party for Partition and for allowing China to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, where it bats in favour of Pakistan.'Pakistan is Congress's mistake. If they had not accepted Partition, there would have been no Pakistan today,' Shah said.
He added: 'United States had suggested that China be admitted to the United Nations but not included in the Security Council. However, (Jawahar Lal) Nehru ji said that this was unacceptable because it would damage our relations with China and upset a great country like China. Today China is a member of the Security Council, while India is not,' Shah said.
Elaborating on Operation Mahadev, Shah said it began on May 22, when the Intelligence Bureau (IB) got 'human intelligence' input about the presence of the three terrorists in the Dachigam area. 'Since then, continuous efforts were made by the IB and the army till July 22, to confirm this information received through the equipment made by our agencies to capture ultra signals in Dachigam. In the cold weather and high altitudes, our officers and jawans of IB, army and the CRPF kept moving on foot to receive their signals. We got success on July 22 through sensors and the presence of terrorists was confirmed. Then, CRPF and Jammu & Kashmir Police personnel under the leadership of 4 Para of Army surrounded the terrorists, and all three terrorists who killed our innocent civilians were finally killed on Monday,' Shah said.
Commenting on NIA probe, Shah said the agency questioned 1,055 persons, including tourists, mule owners, and photographers, which has been recorded as well. 'Based on the information received from interrogation, sketches of the terrorists were made on June 22. Thereafter, Bashir and Parvez, who had given shelter to the terrorists, were arrested. Their mother has also identified the three killed terrorists,' Shah said.
The home minister said that Operation Sindoor has taught 'such a lesson to the terrorists and their masters that no one will dare to do such a thing for a long time to come'.
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