Pahalgam an ISI-LeT conspiracy; only Pak terrorists were engaged to maintain secrecy
NEW DELHI: The April 22 terrorist attack in J&K’s Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians, was a closely guarded conspiracy hatched by Pakistan spy agency ISI and terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) on the directions of the country’s political and military brass, and executed exclusively by Pakistani terrorists , according to sources in the security establishment.
In what sources described as an LeT-ISI joint project akin to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) gave specific directions to Pakistan-based Lashkar commander Sajid Jutt to deploy only foreign terrorists for the gruesome targeted killings in Pahalgam’s Baisaran valley. To ensure complete secrecy, no Kashmiri terrorists were taken on board, and instead, LeT foreign terrorists operating in J&K for sometime were told to execute the killings while ensuring minimal local involvement on a “need-to-know” basis.
The Pahalgam attack squad was led by Sulaiman , a suspected former Pakistani special forces commando, who had trained at the LeT Muridke hub in Pakistan’s Punjab province before crossing the LoC in 2022 with his M-4 weapon to enter the Jammu region. Two other Pakistani terrorists were members of the squad.
Satellite phone analysis has revealed that Sulaiman’s location on April 15 was in Tral forest, indicating he was in the vicinity of the attack site at Baisaran for almost a week before the incident.
Sulaiman was also involved in the April 2023 attack on an Army truck in Poonch, in which five soldiers were killed. However, he laid low for the next two years, before carrying out the ISI-LeT mission. Sources did not reveal the identities of the two other Pakistani terrorists who selectively gunned down the 26 civilians — all men and 25 of them being Hindus.
Even though the J&K Police had earlier suspected the role of Pakistani terrorists Hashim Musa and Ali Bhai, probe has only confirmed Sulaiman’s role till now. There is no corroboration of the role of local Kashmiri terrorist Adil Hussain Thoker as a facilitator, either.
“No local terrorist had participated in the gruesome killing or was in the loop on exact details of the terror plot,” a senior official told TOI. Even the two locals arrested by the NIA in the case last month — Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar from Batkote, Pahalgam, and Bashir Ahmad Jothar from Hill Park, Pahalgam — are believed to have had a limited role, having provided the armed Pakistani terrorists food, shelter and other logistics in return for a few thousand rupees. They have also denied any knowledge of the terrorists’ plan to hit tourists in Baisaran.
The attack in Baisaran was unexpected as terrorists are not known to target tourists in the Kashmir Valley. The area where the attack took place is an open meadow. There was no facility or room for security forces to be present there. Tourists had started visiting Baisaran only three days before the incident after rains stopped. The J&K Tourism Development Corporation had leased the site for three years to a private operator, but full payment had not been received. Hence, all necessary permissions had not been given to open up the site to tourists.
There are currently about 68 foreign terrorists and three local terrorists active in the Valley. Only one local terror recruitment has been reported so far this year.
In what sources described as an LeT-ISI joint project akin to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) gave specific directions to Pakistan-based Lashkar commander Sajid Jutt to deploy only foreign terrorists for the gruesome targeted killings in Pahalgam’s Baisaran valley. To ensure complete secrecy, no Kashmiri terrorists were taken on board, and instead, LeT foreign terrorists operating in J&K for sometime were told to execute the killings while ensuring minimal local involvement on a “need-to-know” basis.
The Pahalgam attack squad was led by Sulaiman , a suspected former Pakistani special forces commando, who had trained at the LeT Muridke hub in Pakistan’s Punjab province before crossing the LoC in 2022 with his M-4 weapon to enter the Jammu region. Two other Pakistani terrorists were members of the squad.
Satellite phone analysis has revealed that Sulaiman’s location on April 15 was in Tral forest, indicating he was in the vicinity of the attack site at Baisaran for almost a week before the incident.
Sulaiman was also involved in the April 2023 attack on an Army truck in Poonch, in which five soldiers were killed. However, he laid low for the next two years, before carrying out the ISI-LeT mission. Sources did not reveal the identities of the two other Pakistani terrorists who selectively gunned down the 26 civilians — all men and 25 of them being Hindus.
Even though the J&K Police had earlier suspected the role of Pakistani terrorists Hashim Musa and Ali Bhai, probe has only confirmed Sulaiman’s role till now. There is no corroboration of the role of local Kashmiri terrorist Adil Hussain Thoker as a facilitator, either.
“No local terrorist had participated in the gruesome killing or was in the loop on exact details of the terror plot,” a senior official told TOI. Even the two locals arrested by the NIA in the case last month — Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar from Batkote, Pahalgam, and Bashir Ahmad Jothar from Hill Park, Pahalgam — are believed to have had a limited role, having provided the armed Pakistani terrorists food, shelter and other logistics in return for a few thousand rupees. They have also denied any knowledge of the terrorists’ plan to hit tourists in Baisaran.
The attack in Baisaran was unexpected as terrorists are not known to target tourists in the Kashmir Valley. The area where the attack took place is an open meadow. There was no facility or room for security forces to be present there. Tourists had started visiting Baisaran only three days before the incident after rains stopped. The J&K Tourism Development Corporation had leased the site for three years to a private operator, but full payment had not been received. Hence, all necessary permissions had not been given to open up the site to tourists.
There are currently about 68 foreign terrorists and three local terrorists active in the Valley. Only one local terror recruitment has been reported so far this year.
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