Indian security agencies tracked the infiltration route and movements of the terrorists responsible for the April 22 Pahalgam attack and this investigation confirmed a direct operational link to Pakistan, according to a report by CNN-News18 citing official sources.

The report said that investigators identified a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba commander based in Lahore as the primary handler of the terrorists.

These findings were part of a detailed dossier prepared after the July 28 counter-terror operation called ‘Operation Mahadev’, during which three terrorists, including the Pahalgam attack mastermind, were killed.

The investigation pointed to Sajid Saifullah Jatt as the main figure behind the brutal attack and it was found that he was acting as Lashkar-e-Taiba’s operational chief for south Kashmir.

Another man named Rizwan Anees from Rawalkot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir organised funeral prayers in PoK for the militants who were killed.

All three terrorists shot dead in the Dachigam-Harwan forest area on July 28 were senior Lashkar operatives and were identified as Suleiman Shah, also known as Faizal Jatt, Abu Hamza alias “Afghan”, and Yasir alias “Jibran”. Union Home Minister Amit Shah shared details about the operation and named the terrorists during a Lok Sabha debate last week on Operation Sindoor.

The report further said that investigators had confirmed none of the three terrorists were Indian nationals.

Security forces recovered strong evidence linking the attackers to Pakistan. Two of them had Pakistani voter ID cards that were linked to electoral rolls from Lahore and Gujranwala. A damaged satellite phone recovered from the encounter contained a micro-SD card with NADRA biometric data confirming their Pakistani citizenship and residential details from Kasur and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. They were also carrying chocolate wrappers that had been manufactured in Pakistan.

CNN-News18 reported that the lot numbers printed on the wrappers matched 2024 shipments sent to Muzaffarabad.

The report added that intercepted radio communication dating back to May 2022 indicated the terrorists had entered India through the Gurez sector along the Line of Control. Local support was essential and two Kashmiri residents, Parvaiz and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, had admitted to sheltering the attackers in a temporary hut near Pahalgam.

Electronic data also played a vital role. GPS readings from a Garmin tracker and call logs from a Huawei satellite phone helped confirm the movements of the terrorists and their communication with handlers in Pakistan.

Later ballistics tests showed that the AK-103 rifles recovered after the Dachigam operation matched the shell casings found at the Pahalgam attack site, which further reinforced the chain of evidence.

Officials described this set of findings as the most complete and convincing body of evidence to have emerged from any recent cross-border terror investigation.

The Pahalgam attack, which was carried out by five heavily armed terrorists, resulted in the deaths of 26 male civilians and was considered one of the most violent attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in recent years.