Photos recovered from an encounter site in 2024 helped identify Pahalgam terrorists  

The three Pahalgam terrorists who were killed during Operation Mahadev on July 28 were identified and tracked with the help of photographs recovered from a mobile phone seized by the security forces after an encounter in south Kashmir in 2024, a senior government official said.

The phone contained several pictures of the three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists identified as Suleman, alias Faizal Jatt, Hamza Afghani, and Zibran posing with guns and ammunition.

Hid in Dachigam forest

The photographs were then matched with the accounts of eyewitnesses present at the Baisaran meadow on April 22 and a search was launched for them in the Dachigam forest, around 20 km from Srinagar, where they were hiding after the terror attack.

The terrorists were using a LoRa (long range) wireless module to communicate, and its signals helped the intelligence agencies track their location.The device was likely assembled, and has been sent for forensic examination, the official said.

Home Minister Amit Shah informed the Lok Sabha on July 29 that indigenous technology was used to track the three terrorists in the Dachigam forest.

The Minister said that on May 22, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) received information about the presence of terrorists in the Dachigam area through human intelligence. He said “continuous efforts were made by the IB and the Army from May 22 to July 22 to confirm the information with an equipment made by our agencies to capture ultra signals in Dachigam”.

“While all three are Pakistanis, Hamza Afghani belongs to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region in north-west Pakistan,” the official said.

The official said the terrorists were sighted multiple times in the forest but they always managed to get away. Security forces combed the forests and monitored areas close to streams and rivers as the terrorists came there to fetch water.

As reported by The Hindu, a group of 20-25 hardened terrorists from Pakistan infiltrated around three years ago and are said to be operating in the forest and mountains across Pir Panjal in Jammu and the forests in south Kashmir. In 2024, the foreign terrorists split into two groups, one led by Suleman who was killed during Operation Mahadev on July 28 and the other group led by another Pakistani identified as Musa. Since 2021, around 150 security personnel have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir, likely carried out by the same group.

“After Operation Mahadev, we have received crucial information about the other foreign terrorists and we have launched operations to track them down,” said the official.