The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a comprehensive 1,597-page charge sheet in the Pahalgam attack case. The charge sheet was filed eight months after the attack; the investigation was a comprehensive one by the NIA.
While the NIA lists all the operational details apart from naming the terrorists, handlers and masterminds, one of the most crucial aspects of the document is the direct link to Pakistan that the agency has managed to list. The charge sheet would serve as an important document for India to call out Pakistan again in the International community.
An official said that Pakistan has repeatedly denied its role in the attack and said that India's allegations were baseless. Pakistan also cried foul when India executed Operation Sindoor to avenge the Pahalgam attack. While the charge sheet was painstakingly prepared by the NIA, the priority was not to take the case to trial and secure a speedy conviction. This would further cement India's charge against Pakistan and its direct involvement in the attack, another official said.
Pakistan's intention was clear while it planned the attack. Not only did the establishment want a diversion from the issues it was facing at home, but it also wanted to disrupt the thriving tourism industry in Jammu and Kashmir. The establishment did manage to briefly derail the industry, but it is back in business today.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that Pakistan initially tried to pass off the attack by stating it was the locals from Jammu and Kashmir who carried it out. This was aimed at building up public anger against the Kashmiris and dividing J&K and the rest of India, the official said. This, too, worked very briefly for Pakistan.
NIA officials say that there are key elements in the charge sheet that pin down Pakistan. Two Android mobiles were recovered from the site at which Operation Mahadev took place. It was during this encounter that the three Pakistani terrorists were gunned down by the security agencies at Dachigam. The NIA managed to find crucial evidence which established that the terrorists were of Pakistani origin.
Further, it was found that the phones were purchased in Pakistan, and a forensic analysis of the same linked the terrorists to the country. Post the encounter, the agencies recovered M4 assault rifles, which are being used heavily by Pakistani terrorists in recent times. Also, there were chocolates and other belongings that were found, which again had a Pakistan link to them, an official added.
The probe also found that the terrorists involved in the attack were Faisal Watt, Habeeb Tahir and Hamza Afghani. All of them were Pakistan nationals, the probe found. While electronic evidence links the attack to Pakistan, the NIA also managed to establish another crucial link relating to the mastermind. Sajjad Jutt, the mastermind of the attack, who oversees the operations of the Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy, The Resistance Front, is a known person in Intelligence circles. He has been involved in many operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian agencies that have several records on him have known about him since his time in Jammu and Kashmir in 2000. He was active in the Valley during those years until he returned to Pakistan in 2005. Jutt is part of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and when the outfit decided to create a proxy in the form of the Resistance Front, he was asked to oversee operations.
In addition to the Pahalgam attack, Jutt has also masterminded the 2024 Reasi attack on a bus during which nine pilgrims were killed. He was also involved in the assault on Indian Army personnel at Srinagar in 2013, and also the 2002 killing of a station house officer at Budgam.
The probe into the 2023 Bhata Dhurian attack in Poonch, in which five Indian soldiers were killed, was also masterminded by Jutt. Officials say that the charge sheet alone is enough to call out Pakistan's bluff.
Post Operation Sindoor, Pakistan has been playing the victim card, stating that it is being unfairly accused. Not only does the charge sheet India's action against Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, but also exposes Islamabad in the international community, where it has tried to project India as the oppressor, another official said.
(With inputs from IANS)
