Latest news with #AK-47s
The Hindu
17 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
No local has joined terror groups in J&K in the last six months, says Amit Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday (July 30, 2025) that in the past six months, no local had joined any terrorist group in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Those being killed in security operations in the Union Territory were all foreigners, he said. Also read: Parliament Monsoon session Day 8 highlights He said there should be no doubt that the three terrorists killed during Operation Mahadev on July 28 were the ones who carried out the Pahalgam terror attack, as the investigating agencies had matched their photos, and the evidence was backed by forensic reports. Opposition protests Mr. Shah was speaking on the success of Operation Sindoor in the Rajya Sabha. As he began his speech, Opposition leaders protested and shouted slogans demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi be present in the House. Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said the Prime Minister should have been present. Responding to this, Mr. Shah said, 'I am enough for you, if he comes here, you will be affected more. On what basis is Khargeji objecting? On most important issues, his party does not let him speak in the House.' 'CRPF tailed attackers' Speaking about Operation Mahadev, Mr. Shah said, 'It is clear that Lashkar-E-Taiba (LeT) was involved in the attack.' He identified the three killed terrorists as Suleman, alias Faizal Jatt, Hamza Afghani and Zibran. He said questions are being raised about the timing of the killings. 'I wanted to kill them the next second (after Pahalgam). They were hiding in unreachable heights; for 22 days the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans who tracked them in the jungle survived with food sent through drones,' the Minister said. To questions on how the terrorists were entering India, he said, 'They have built tunnels (along the border); there are some nallahs (water bodies); one cannot build even a post there; the force of water is such. We are finding technological solutions for this gap.' He said the priority of the Congress was its vote bank and not to end terrorism. The Opposition wants to secure its politics of secularism and appeasement, he alleged. 'The day Pahalgam happened, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) collected empty cartridges (from the Baisaran meadow). Forensics was done. After the three terrorists were killed, the rifles found with them were matched with the empty shells. It was established that the same weapons were used. At Pahalgam, 44 cartridges were found to be from M4 rifles, and 25 bullets were fired from two AK-47s. There is no doubt that these were the terrorists who carried out the attack. Their sketches were made; they were tracked,' Mr. Shah said. He said that the intelligence agencies got the information about the particular location of the terrorists on May 22, a month after Pahalgam. 'Intelligence Bureau and military intelligence did further investigation and on 22 July, a LoRa (communication device) was pinpointed (at Dachigam, where the terrorists were killed). I got numerous messages, including from the relatives of those killed in Pahalgam, that the terrorists should be shot in the head. I want to tell the families that they were shot in the head,' Mr. Shah said. He said the terrorists, by killing people in the name of religion, wanted to give a message that Kashmir will never be free of terrorism. He said a former Congress Chief Minister from Maharashtra remarked that all that the BJP does is name operations after Hindu Gods, referring to Operation Mahadev, named after Lord Shiva. 'I want to say that the name is not only associated with a Hindu God, it was also a war cry of Shivaji Maharaj, this is symbolic of India's response to the attack on India's sovereignty. What name did you want to give? This should not be looked at from the prism of Hindu or Muslim,' he said. Also read: Congress raises questions on security lapses which led to Pahalgam attack He added, 'Peace can only be brought by inducing fear in them (Pakistan), they are not going to mend their ways.' Had the attack happened during the tenure of the Congress, it would be sending dossiers and arranging dialogues with the neighbouring country, he said. Dismissing the allegations made by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh that the 26/11 Mumbai attack was carried out by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mr. Shah said, 'A Hindu can never be a terrorist. False cases were foisted on nationalist outfits; no case could stand in the court of law.'
NDTV
a day ago
- Politics
- NDTV
2 Terrorists Killed In J&K Encounter Days After Pahalgam Killers Shot Dead
Two terrorists were gunned down in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch this morning, days after security forces shot dead the terrorists involved in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. The terrorists, it is learnt, were affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit. Earlier this morning, the Army's White Knight Corps said in a post on X that it had observed the suspicious movement of two persons in the Poonch sector. "Suspected movement of two individuals was observed by own troops along the fence in gen area of #Poonch Sector. Gunfire exchanged. Operation under progress," it said. Jammu and Kashmir's Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat later confirmed to NDTV that two terrorists who had infiltrated into India were shot dead during the gunfight with security forces. The encounter in Poonch comes two days after three terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack, which left 26 innocents dead, were killed in an encounter near Srinagar. Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the Parliament during a debate on Operation Sindoor yesterday that the three terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev -- Suleiman, Afghani and Jibran -- are the killers who shot dead innocents in cold blood in Pahalgam's Baisaran Valley on April 22. Explaining how the government confirmed that these three terrorists were involved in the Pahalgam attack, the Home Minister said, "NIA earlier arrested those who sheltered these terrorists. When their bodies were brought to Srinagar, we got them to identify the bodies." For further confirmation, he said, forensic reports of bullet shells recovered from the Pahalgam attack site were used. "After these terrorists were killed, their rifles were seized. One was an M9, the other two were AK-47s. We got these rifles flown to Chandigarh central FSL (forensic science laboratory) on a special plane. We generated empty bullet shells by firing these rifles and then matched them with those found in Pahalgam. It was then confirmed that these three rifles were used to murder our innocent civilians," Mr Shah said. "There is no room for doubt. I am holding the ballistic report, six scientists have cross-checked it and confirmed to me over video call that the bullets fired at Pahalgam and the bullets fired from these guns are a 100 per cent match," he said.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Chandigarh CFSL burns midnight oil, nails slain terrorists' link with Pahalgam
It was around 10 pm (Monday) when the Chandigarh Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) director Dr Sukhminder Kaur received an important call from power corridors in New Delhi. She was told to assemble her 'A-Team'. The assignment was big. A package was arriving from Srinagar on a special flight that would land around midnight. On board were weapons seized from three terrorists gunned down in the Dachigam encounter. The job was clear: Find out a link between the slain terrorists and the Pahalgam attack. An image showing arms, ammunition and other items recovered during Operation Mahadev. (PTI) What followed was a night of frenetic activity which saw forensic experts working against the clock, test-firing weapons, examining ammunition and analysing ballistic evidence. At the crack of dawn, around 4.45 am, they were ready with the report, clearly establishing that the weapons recovered from the three slain terrorists were the same that were used in the April 22 dastardly attack that left 25 terrorists and a local dead. Hours later, Union home minister Amit Shah announced in the Lok Sabha: 'Three terrorists, Suleman alias Faizal, Afghani and Jibran, were eliminated in the Operation Mahadev conducted in Jammu and Kashmir's Dachigam forest. While Suleman was an A-category commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Afghani was also an A-category LeT terrorist. Jibran, too, was a notorious and wanted terrorist. All three involved in the killing of our citizens at Baisaran valley in Pahalgam have now been eliminated.' Shah informed the House that weapons recovered during Operation Mahadev have been ballistically matched with those used in the Pahalgam firing incident, establishing a direct link between the slain terrorists and the mass killing. 'I have the ballistic report, which has been cross-verified by six senior experts. They confirmed on a video call at 4.46 am today that the rifles recovered from the terrorists are the same weapons used in the Pahalgam attack,' Shah said. 'Three firearms were recovered from the slain terrorists: An M4 rifle and two AK-47s. These were promptly sent to CFSL Chandigarh, where a dedicated four-member forensic team along with Directorate of Forensic Science Services, under the home ministry, conducted ballistic matching tests,' said a forensic expert, involved in the analysis. 'Experts in Chandigarh performed test-firing of the seized weapons to obtain cartridge cases, which were then compared with the ballistic evidence collected from the April 22 Pahalgam attack site. The bullets and cartridges recovered earlier had been preserved and catalogued for forensic analysis,' added the expert. Each firearm, as the CFSL expert emphasised, has distinctive characteristics. Even two weapons of the same make and calibre leave different microscopic marks on bullets and cartridge cases due to differences in manufacturing and wear & tear. These unique patterns act like fingerprints for the firearm. 'When a gun is fired, burning gunpowder creates gas pressure, which forces the bullet through the barrel. As the bullet travels, the barrel's rifling (spiral grooves) leaves microscopic scratch marks. Meanwhile, the cartridge case picks up marks from various internal parts of the firearm such as the firing pin, breech face, extractor, ejector, and chamber,' he added. As part of the forensic examination, the recovered firearms were subjected to test firing. The weapons were loaded with appropriate ammunition and fired in a controlled environment to obtain test cartridge cases. Using a comparison microscope, CFSL experts placed the test-fired cartridge cases side-by-side with those recovered from the Pahalgam crime scene. A successful match was established, confirming that the same weapons were used in both incidents. 'The test cartridge cases matched perfectly with those recovered from the Pahalgam site. This is conclusive proof,' said another senior forensic scientist. 'Earlier forensic examination had suggested that three firearms had been used in Pahalgam attack, indicating the use of multiple firearms. The recovery of the M4 and two AK-47 rifles aligns with that finding. The cartridge cases, through headstamp markings and dimensional analysis, helped identify the type of ammunition used, adding another layer of confirmation to the weapons' origin,' shared the expert.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
'Operation Mahadev': Special plane flew guns overnight to CFSL, Chandigarh, for confirmatory ballistic tests
NEW DELHI: It was possibly the smallest cargo that a special plane, requisitioned at short notice, may have carried, but it ended up solving one of the most crucial terror investigations of the time. After three terrorists were killed in 'Operation Mahadev' on Monday, the security establishment did not stop at simply getting them identified by family members of the two locals who had provided them food and shelter at their seasonal 'dhok (hut)' near Baisaran, a day before the Pahalgam attack. Amit Shah directed the adoption of a more scientific route - a ballistic test at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, to match the weapons recovered from the slain terrorists with the cartridge casings recovered from the Pahalgam attack site. The latter had been tested earlier at the same lab. The weapons - an M-4 carbine and two AK-47s - were flown from Srinagar to Chandigarh on the special plane on Monday-Tuesday night. Forensic/ballistic experts at CFSL burnt the midnight oil, conducting test firings and generating empty shells for comparison. "The grooves and the markings from the barrels and shells matched perfectly... Six forensic experts confirmed to me on video call at 4.46am on Tuesday that these were the same rifles used in killing our innocent citizens (in Pahalgam)," Shah shared in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Forensics of rifles, bullets led to confirming of the Pahalgam attackers identity
In this image released by @ChinarcorpsIA via X, arms, ammunition and other items recovered during Operation Mahadev. (Picture credit: PTI) NEW DELHI: It was possibly the smallest cargo that a special plane, requisitioned at short notice, may have carried, but which would end up solving one of the most crucial terror investigations of the time. After three terrorists were killed in a 'Operation Mahadev' on Monday by the Army, CRPF and J&K police in Dachigam area, the security establishment did not stop at simply getting them identified by family members of the two locals who had provided them food and shelter at their seasonal dhok (hut) near Baisaran, a day before the attack. Home minister Amit Shah directed the adoption of a more scientific route — a ballistic test at the Central forensic science laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh to match the weapons recovered from the slain terrorists with the cartridge casings recovered from the Pahalgam attack site. The latter had already been tested earlier at the same lab. The weapons, an M-4 carbine and two AK-47s, were flown from Srinagar to Chandigarh in a special plane on Monday-Tuesday midnight. The forensic/ballistic experts at CFSL burnt the midnight oil, conducting test firings and generating empty shells for comparison. 'The grooves and the markings from the barrels and shells matched forensic experts confirmed to me on video call at 4.46 am on Tuesday that these were the same rifles used in killing our innocent citizens (in Pahalgam),' Shah shared in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
