SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has uncovered significant new details in its ongoing probe into the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which left 26 civilians dead in the Baisaran Valley. The breakthrough comes following the interrogation of two alleged harbourers—Parvaiz Ahmed and Bashir Ahmad—and the emergence of a key eyewitness account that offers insight into how the terrorists operated while fleeing the scene.
According to senior security officials, the witness reported that the attackers fired into the air as they escaped, possibly to intimidate locals and discourage pursuit. The NIA has recovered empty cartridges from the spot, corroborating the witness’s version. The eyewitness further revealed that he was confronted by the terrorists, who asked him to recite the Kalma, a religious verse in Islam. His local accent apparently convinced them that he was a native, which may have spared his life.
Multiple survivors of the brutal attack have also recounted similar experiences—terrorists using religious profiling through Kalma recitation before selecting victims, a chilling pattern that suggests calculated sectarian targeting.
Investigators believe that the attack was carried out by a newly formed and tightly controlled terror module, likely engineered by Pakistan’s ISI to maintain operational secrecy. The NIA has identified three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, all Pakistani nationals, as being involved in the Pahalgam massacre. One of them has been named as Hashim Musa, a former Pakistani army regular, who is also suspected of masterminding the Z-Modh tunnel attack in Sonmarg, where six labourers and a doctor were killed.
The identities of the other two terrorists remain undisclosed, but officials confirm that they have no previous intelligence records, suggesting a recent infiltration. Security agencies suspect this was a deliberate ISI tactic—to avoid using known local Kashmiri terrorists or established Over Ground Workers (OGWs) and instead deploy an unfamiliar module, making the attack harder to detect and trace.
“There are no prior records for the harbourers either, which strengthens our belief that the ISI wanted a clean slate—no links to existing networks that could leak or raise suspicion,” said an intelligence source.
Initially, intelligence reports indicated that three to five terrorists were involved in the attack in Baisaran Valley. However, based on forensic analysis, witness testimonies, and interrogation of the accused, three have now been definitively identified—all Pakistani nationals, and all believed to be part of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s newer infiltration wing.
The NIA’s findings point to a shift in terror strategy, where foreign operatives are being inserted without deep local collaboration to execute high-casualty, low-traceability operations. With the identities of the suspects becoming clearer, the focus now shifts to locating their handlers and the route of infiltration.
Authorities are continuing search operations in South Kashmir, where the terrorists are believed to have been sheltered prior to the attack. Further arrests and forensic breakthroughs are expected as the probe gains traction.
The Pahalgam attack marks one of the deadliest civilian killings in recent years in Kashmir, with investigators now racing against time to dismantle what appears to be a newly activated, high-secrecy terror network operating under direct ISI guidance.
