Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on July 29 that all three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists who were involved in the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 were neutralised during Operation Mahadev on the outskirts of Srinagar on Monday.
“In a joint Operation Mahadev, the Indian Army, CRPF and J&K Police have neutralised three terrorists who were involved in the Pahalgam terror attack,” Shah said in Lok Sabha, speaking during a debate on Operation Sindoor on Tuesday afternoon.
Twenty-six civilians were killed in the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, after which India retaliated through precision strikes under Operation Sindoor, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK).
“All three terrorists – Suleman, Afghan and Jibran were killed in yesterday’s operation. The people who used to supply food to them were detained earlier. Once the bodies of these terrorists were brought to Srinagar, they were identified by those who were kept detained by our agencies.” Shah said in the Parliament.
Shah said the identification of the three terrorists killed was confirmed by four persons, including two arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The use of the same weapons by these three slain terrorists carried during the Pahalgam terror attack was confirmed through ballistic tests conducted by an FSL lab in Chandigarh, the Home Minister informed the Parliament.
“The NIA had already arrested those who gave them shelter. Those who fed them were detained. When the terrorists’ dead bodies reached Srinagar, they were identified as the three people who carried out the terror attack in Pahalgam,” Shah said in the House.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressed the Lok Sabha during the special discussion on ‘Operation Sindoor’, India’s military response to the Pahalgam terror attack, on Monday.
“The FSL report of the cartridges from the terror attack was already ready… Yesterday, the rifles of the three terrorists were seized and matched with the FSL reports… Further tests were carried out in Chandigarh yesterday, after that it was confirmed that these three were those who carried out the terror attack,” he said.
Shah said that soon after Pahalgam attack, he had met the affected families. “I saw standing before me a woman who had been widowed just 6 days after her wedding- I can never forget that scene. I want to tell all families today that Modi ji neutralised those who sent the terrorists, and today our security forces killed those who committed the killings,” he said.
What is Operation Mahadev?
The three terrorists were killed in an intense firefight with security forces in the Harwan area near Dachigam National Park of Srinagar inJammu and Kashmir,the Indian Army said on Monday.
The Chinar Corps of the Indian Army said the anti-terror Operation Mahadev took place in the general area of Lidwas.
The security forces, acting on an intelligence input, launched an anti-militancy operation in the Mulnar area of Harwan, they said. Two rounds of gunshots were heard from a distance as security personnel were carrying out searches, officials said, as reported by PTI.