Chocolates, voter IDs, rifles: Amit Shah shares proof of killers' Pakistan links
operation Mahadev
in which two Pakistan nationals and an Afghan involved in the 2025
Pahalgam attack
were killed by security forces, Union Home Minister
Amit Shah
revealed their identity in the Lok Sabha. "Suleman, Hamza Afghani (Afghani) and Zibran were killed in a joint operation of the
Indian Army
,
CRPF
and Jammu and Kashmir Police in Dachigam, Kashmir," he said.
Suleman, Hamza and Jibran were 'A' category LeT terrorists involved in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, Shah told Parliament.
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Shah said Operation Mahadev was started on May 22, 2025. After the Pahalgam attack, Shah visited the attack site and a security review meeting was held on April 23 in which all the security forces were involved. It was decided that the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack should not flee to Pakistan. "We made arrangements for this and did not let them escape the country," he said.
Shah said that on May 22, 2025, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) received information about the presence of terrorists in Dachigam area. He said continuous efforts were made by the IB and Army from May 22 to July 22 to confirm this information received through equipment made by the agencies to capture ultra signals (from Chinese apps) in Dachigam.
"Our officers and jawans of IB, Army and CRPF kept moving on foot in the cold and high altitudes to receive signals. On July 22, we got success through sensors and the presence of terrorists was confirmed. The CRPF and J&K police personnel, under the leadership of 4 Para, surrounded the terrorists and all the three terrorists were killed," he said.
Shah told the House that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had already arrested the people who had given shelter to these three terrorists. He said that when the bodies of these three terrorists were brought to Srinagar, four people identified them as Pahalgam attackers.
The FSL report of the cartridges found at the Pahalgam attack site were matched with the three rifles recovered from the terrorists in Dachigam. The three rifles were transported to Chandigarh on Monday night by plane and empty shells were generated by firing. The shells found at the Pahalgam attack site were matched with the shells and it was confirmed these 3 rifles were used for the attack.
LeT and its outfit TRF (now banned by US) took responsibility for the Pahalgam attack. "We had decided that NIA will investigate this attack. NIA has expertise as a globally recognised agency in scientifically investigating terrorist cases and bringing the culprits to justice. NIA's conviction rate is more than 96%," Shah said.
Shah said 1,055 people were interrogated for more than 3,000 hours and on the basis of this information, the sketches of the terrorists were made.
"We have all the evidence because Pakistani voter numbers of two of the three terrorists were available, rifles were also available, the chocolates found with them were also made in Pakistan," he said.
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