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Operation Mahadev: India has presented conclusive and multi-layered evidence proving that the three terrorists killed during Operation Mahadev on July 28 in the Dachigam-Harwan forest belt of Jammu and Kashmir were senior Pakistani nationals and operatives of the banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The trio—described as Suleman Shah alias Faizal Jatt, Abu Hamza alias Afghan, and Yasir alias Jibran- were behind the April 22 Pahalgam attack in which 26 civilians were killed in cold blood at the popular Baisaran meadow in Kashmir. The Home Ministry on July 29 confirmed that the evidence "irrefutably" pins Pakistan's direct involvement in planning and carrying out the attack.

Evidence Trail Links Attackers to Pakistan

India's security agencies, assisted by technical officials and forensic laboratories, have constructed a watertight case against the Pakistanis using a mix of physical, electronic, biometric, and testimonial evidence.

1. Pakistani Government Documents Recovered:

• Two laminated voter ID slips issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan were found in the pockets of Suleman Shah and Abu Hamza.
• Serial numbers on the slips match electoral rolls in NA-125 (Lahore) and NA-79 (Gujranwala).
• NADRA-linked Smart ID chips were recovered from the terrorists’ rucksack.
• A micro-SD card retrieved from a damaged satellite phone contained full biometric records from NADRA—including fingerprints, facial templates, and family lineage, linking them to Changa Manga (Kasur district) and Koiyan village near Rawalakot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

2. Pakistan-Made Products Found:

• Wrappers of Candyland and Chocomax, popular Pakistani chocolates manufactured in Karachi, were found in the same bag carrying ammunition.
• Lot numbers on the wrappers correspond to a May 2024 consignment sent to Muzaffarabad in PoK, confirming recent supply from Pakistan.

3. Digital Forensics and Movement Mapping:

• A Garmin GPS device recovered from Suleman Shah had stored waypoints that matched firing positions reported by eyewitnesses at Baisaran.
• The terrorists had crossed the LoC near Gurez in May 2022, with Intelligence Bureau (IB) intercepts confirming their first radio check-in from Pakistani territory.
• Between April 22 and July 25, the terrorists used a satellite phone (IMEI 86761204-XXXXXX) that was pinging the Inmarsat-4 F1 satellite nightly.
• Triangulation of signals narrowed their hideout to a 4 km² area in the Harwan forest belt.

4. Ballistics and DNA Match:

• Forensic testing confirmed that 7.62x39 mm shell casings recovered from the Baisaran massacre scene matched the AK-103 rifles seized from the terrorists on July 28.
• A torn, bloodied shirt found at the crime scene was DNA-matched with the bodies of all three men killed in Dachigam.
• Striation marks on bullets were a 100 per cent match, conclusive evidence of weapon use.

India’s investigation has also unearthed the command-and-control structure of LeT that coordinated the attack:

• Sajid Saifullah Jatt, LeT’s South Kashmir operations chief and a resident of Changa Manga, Lahore, was identified as the handler.
• Voice samples from the sat-phone match earlier intercepts of Sajid’s conversations, according to Indian intelligence.
• Rizwan Anees, LeT’s Rawalakot commander, visited the homes of the slain terrorists on July 29 to organise Ghaibana Namaz (funeral without body), which was filmed by locals—a video now part of India’s evidence dossier. Although no Kashmiri was involved in the terrorist firing squad, two local assistants, Parvaiz and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, have been arrested for providing overnight accommodation and meals to the terrorists in a seasonal hut on the outskirts of Hill Park, 2 km from Baisaran. Their admissions confirmed the movement chronology worked out using GPS.

ALSO READ: Indian Army Confirms Pakistani Terrorists Killed In Operation Mahadev Involved In Pahalgam Terror Attack

Pakistan’s Official Denials And Global Contradictions

In the weeks following the attack, top Pakistani officials consistently denied any role of their state or its terror networks. Defence Minister Khwaja Asif, speaking to local media, dismissed India’s accusations outright. He claimed the attackers were “home-grown revolutionaries” driven by “resistance movements” against the Indian state in Kashmir, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, and other regions. Asif went as far as suggesting that India was facing “dozens of revolts” and that blaming Pakistan was a diversion from internal unrest. Adding to the denials, the Pakistan Foreign Office issued a formal statement claiming that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)—the group blamed by India, was a “defunct and dismantled” organisation. It argued that no conclusive evidence had been presented and maintained that “investigations into the Pahalgam attack remain inconclusive.” However, all these claims collapsed under the weight of the irrefutable evidence uncovered during Operation Mahadev on July 28, when Indian security forces neutralized the three Pakistani terrorists responsible for the Pahalgam massacre. This hard evidence not only validated India’s initial suspicions but also exposed the false narrative pushed by Pakistani officials in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.

Further cornering Islamabad on the global stage, the United States on August 1 officially designated The Resistance Front (TRF)—a Lashkar proxy—as a Foreign Terrorist Organization for its direct role in the Pahalgam attack. In its statement, the U.S. State Department explicitly linked TRF to LeT, stating that Pakistan’s claim that LeT was no longer active “belied ground realities.”

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The contrast between Pakistan’s early denials and the evidence gathered by Indian agencies has now left Islamabad diplomatically exposed. What was once dismissed as “home-grown unrest” has been conclusively proven to be a cross-border terror operation, led by Pakistan-based Lashkar commanders, sheltered by locals, and executed with military precision. As India pushes for further global censure and accountability, Operation Mahadev has not only avenged the Pahalgam victims but also unmasked Pakistan’s systematic attempts to hide its involvement in cross-border terrorism.