NEW DELHI, July 29 – Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the three terrorists neutralized in Srinagar a day earlier were the same perpetrators behind the deadly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. The definitive link was established through both forensic evidence and physical identification, marking a major breakthrough for India’s security apparatus.
The announcement came during a parliamentary debate on ‘Operation Sindoor,’ India’s retaliatory strikes against terror infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the Pahalgam attack which claimed 26 civilian lives.
“I want to inform the House and the nation that in a joint ‘Operation Mahadev,’ the Indian Army, CRPF, and J&K Police have neutralized all three terrorists who were involved in the Pahalgam terror attack,” Shah declared in Parliament.
The Home Minister identified the slain terrorists as Suleiman, Afghan, and Jibran—all senior operatives of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. He detailed the two-pronged confirmation process, stating, “The NIA had already arrested those who gave them shelter. When the terrorists’ dead bodies reached Srinagar, they were identified as the three people who carried out the terror attack in Pahalgam.”
Further cementing the link, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the House that ballistic tests provided undeniable proof. “The FSL report of the cartridges from the terror attack was already ready,” Singh explained. “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.”
The successful mission, “Operation Mahadev,” was launched on Monday based on specific intelligence inputs in the forested Lidwas-Harwan area on the outskirts of Srinagar, near Dachigam National Park. A joint team of security forces engaged the heavily armed terrorists in an intense firefight, leading to their elimination. An M4 carbine and two AK series rifles were among the weapons recovered from the site.
Recalling the aftermath of the initial tragedy, Shah delivered an emotional statement, connecting the operation’s success directly to the victims’ families. “I saw standing before me a woman who had been widowed just 6 days after her wedding—I can never forget that scene,” he said. “I want to tell all families today that Modi ji neutralized those who sent the terrorists, and today our security forces killed those who committed the killings.”
