Chandigarh lab rifle test helped ID Pahalgam attackers: Shah

A midnight flight to Chandigarh to run ballistics tests on the arms seized from three terrorists killed in Dachigam, Srinagar, on July 28 and an early morning confirmation from scientists, all within a span of 24 hours, helped confirm their involvement in the Pahalgam attack, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Parliament on Tuesday.

Editorial: Mission successful

Shah gave this information while participating in the discussion on Operation Sindoor in Lok Sabha, where he said the three terrorists — Sulaiman, Afghani and Jibran — were killed in “Operation Mahadev” launched by the Army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday.

The minister said Sulaiman was a top Lashkar commander and security agencies had evidence of his involvement in the Pahalgam attack that left 26 persons dead. Afghan and Jibran, too, were “A-listed” terrorists. “I want to tell Parliament and the nation that those who murdered our citizens in the Baisaran valley, these three were among them and they were killed,” he said, congratulating the security personnel on their success.

Shah said he landed in Srinagar hours after the Pahalgam attack and chaired a security meeting. “We ensured that the terrorists could not escape to Pakistan,” he said.

Explaining how the government confirmed that the three slain terrorists were involved in the Pahalgam attack, he said: “The NIA had earlier arrested those who had sheltered these terrorists. When their bodies were brought to Srinagar, we got them to identify the bodies.”

To be doubly sure that these were actually the Pahalgam attackers, Shah said forensic reports of bullet shells recovered from the attack site were used.

“After these terrorists were killed, their rifles were seized. One was an M9, the other two were AK-47s. We got these rifles flown to the Chandigarh CFSL on a special plane. We generated empty bullet shells by firing these rifles and then matched them with those found in Pahalgam. It was then confirmed that these three rifles were used to murder our innocent civilians,” Shah said.