Speaking for the government on the second day of the special debate on Operation Sindoor in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in the House that those behind the Pahalgam terror attack had been killed.
The three terrorists gunned down in the Dachigam forest area on the outskirts of Srinagar under ‘Operation Mahadev’ on Monday were the same as those involved in the terrorist attack on April 22, Shah said, adding that forensic proof as well as witness identification of the men had confirmed the same. Identifying the three as Suleiman alias Faisal Jatt, Afghan and Jibran, he said they had all come from Pakistan.
The three were killed in ‘Operation Mahadev’ carried out by the Army’s 4 Para, CRPF and J&K Police jointly, Shah said. “Suleiman was an A-grade LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) commander, and was involved in the Pahalgam and Gagangeer (the Z-Morh tunnel) attacks. Our agencies have ample evidence of this. Afghan was an A-grade LeT commander and Jibran was also an A-grade terrorist. These three terrorists were those who killed our citizens in Baisaran (Pahalgam), and all three have been killed. Through this House, I thank the security personnel involved.”
Giving details of Operation Mahadev, the Home Minister said it “started on May 22, 2025”. “In a way, the day the killings happened, that night itself a security meeting was held… They (the Opposition) are saying only Rahul Gandhi went there… At 1 pm, the attack happened, and at 5.30 pm, I was in Srinagar. On April 23, a security meeting took place, with the security forces and J&K Police present. The first decision taken was that those involved in the killings should not escape to Pakistan, and we made elaborate arrangements. On May 22, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) received human intelligence of the presence of terrorists in the Dachigam region… Repeated efforts were on from May till July 22 to confirm this… On July 22, we got success through sensors, and it was confirmed that the terrorists were there.”
On how they had confirmed that the three killed were those behind the Pahalgam attack, Shah said: “The NIA had kept those who helped these terrorists in custody and when the bodies of the terrorists came to Srinagar, four people confirmed that these three conducted the terror attack in Pahalgam.”
The minister said that this was not all they depended upon. “We were in no rush,” Shah said, adding that they also matched the cartridges found with the three killed, with those recovered from the Pahalgam terror site. “Three rifles were recovered from them. One was an M9 American rifle and two were AK-47. The cartridges found (in Pahalgam) were also of M9 and AK-47. The recovered rifles were sent to Chandigarh (forensic lab) in a special aircraft. These rifles were fired all night, and the cartridges matched (with those recovered from the Pahalgam site)… Then, it was determined that these three rifles were used to kill our innocent citizens,” he said.
“I have the ballistic report in my hand and it is verified by six scientists. And they… are 100% sure,” said Shah.
The Home Minister said the security agencies also had clear proof of the terrorists being from Pakistan, such as voter numbers of two of the three. “The rifles are with us. The chocolates found with them are also manufactured in Pakistan.”
At the start of his address, the Home Minister expressed his condolences to the families of those killed in Pahalgam, and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the go-ahead for Operation Sindoor in response. People had been killed in front of their families, after being asked about their religion, Shah pointed out, adding that he wanted to tell their families that the attackers “have been taught a lesson, so that they can’t undertake such an incident again”.
If Operation Sindoor had killed the bosses of the terrorists who were killed, Shah said, Operation Mahadev had killed the terrorists themselves. “I had hoped that when this information is shared, there will be happiness across the board… But their (the Opposition’s) faces have fallen… Are you not happy that the terrorists have been killed?” Shah said.
In a barb at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who also spoke during the debate, Shah urged him not to be upset over “the religion of the terrorists killed”.
On the Opposition’s point of accountability, Shah spoke about the attacks under previous governments, and said: “They were asking yesterday where they (the terrorists) came from, where they went, and who is responsible. We are responsible because we are in government. But I ask, when you were in government, then who was responsible?”
Elaborating the steps they had undertaken after the Pahalgam attack, Shah said: “The Army, BSF, CRPF and J&K Police made all the arrangements to stop their escape from the country… A total of 1,055 people were questioned for over 3,000 hours for information, and it was all video-recorded. Based on it, sketches were made.”
He added: “On June 22, one Bashir and one Parvez who had given shelter to the terrorists were identified… They were arrested and kept in custody. They said that on the night of April 21, at 8 pm, three terrorists had come… They had AK47 and M9 rifles… They ate, had tea and carried some food with them… The mother of the two (who gave shelter) also identified the bodies of the terrorists.”
In the Rajya Sabha, which began its debate on Operation Sindoor Tuesday, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also started his address by informing the House that the terrorists behind the Pahalgam attack had been killed.
“In the probe carried out after the Pahalgam attack, security agencies had obtained important clues which were used for counter-terror operations. A forensic analysis was done of the weapons found on the terrorists (killed on Monday), and that made it clear that these were the same used in the Pahalgam terror attack. We have done what we said, and all three terrorists were killed by security forces,” Singh said.
“These men were from the same terrorist front whose terrorists killed 26 innocent people in Pahalgam on April 22. No praise is enough for our security forces for maintaining the country’s internal security,” he said.
(with ENS inputs)
