The National Investigation Agency headauarters, in New Delhi, Thursday, Apr. 10, 2025.
Credit: PTI Photo
The devastating terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam claimed 26 innocent lives, leading to a national condemnation of Pakistan, which has been sheltering terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed, both of which have been responsible for more such attacks on Indian soil in the past.
Soon after the attack, security personnel had released sketches of three terrorists involved in the same, and the houses of two of them, who were based out of Jammu and Kashmir, were blown to bits.
According to reports, the house of Asif Sheikh in Tral (Pulwama) and that of Adil Thokar in Bijbehara (Anantnag) were razed, allegedly using explosives. However, no official statement was issued regarding the demolitions.
Here we look at the progress of the investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack:
NIA registers case
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) formally took over the Pahalgam terrorist attack case on Sunday, April 27, intensifying its search for evidence and questioning eyewitnesses to unravel the terror conspiracy.
They said the anti-terror agency registered a case in Jammu following orders from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and several teams are involved in the investigation.
After the dastardly terror attack that claimed 26 lives, a team of NIA officials led by its Inspector General (IG) was rushed to the site to assist the local police.
They said NIA teams have been camping at the terror attack site since Wednesday, looking for clues.
"The entry and exit points are being closely scrutinised by the investigating NIA teams for clues to the modus operandi of the terrorists. The teams, aided by forensic and other experts, are checking the entire area thoroughly for evidence to expose the terror conspiracy that led to the horrendous attack that has shocked the nation," an NIA statement said.
The eyewitnesses are also being questioned in minute detail to piece together the sequence of events that led to one of the worst terror attacks in Kashmir, it said.
The teams, overseen by an IG, a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and a Superintendent of Police (SP) from the anti-terror agency, are examining eyewitnesses who had seen the horrifying attack unfold before their eyes at the peaceful and picturesque Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, according to the statement issued by NIA.
Mastermind identified
Sheikh Sajjad Gul
Credit: NIA
The NIA revealed on Wednesday—the same day when India carried out airstrikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam massacre—that a 50-year-old Kashmiri and head of Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy The Resistance Front (TRF) who goes by the name Sheikh Sajjad Gul, was the mastermind of the April 22 killings.
Holed up in the Cantonment town of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, under the patronage of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Gul, who also goes by the alias of Sajjad Ahmed Sheikh, has been a planner of a number of terror attacks, including targeted killings between 2020 and 2024 in Central and South Kashmir, grenade attacks in Central Kashmir in 2023, ambush of J&K police personnel in Bijbehara in Anantnag, Gagangir, Z-Morh Tunnel attack in Ganderbal.
The NIA had designated him a terrorist in April 2022 and kept a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.
The official said that during the investigation into the deadly April 22 Pahalgam attack, links and some communications have been traced back to Gul. The TRF had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Used by Pakistan's external snooping agency ISI as a Kashmiri face of the local Punjabi-dominated Lashkar-e-Taiba, Sheikh was educated in Srinagar and did his MBA from Bangalore, later pivoting to a lab technician course in Kerala. He returned to the Valley, where he opened a diagnostic lab and started providing logistical support to the terror group.
The creation of TRF was a strategy of the ISI in the aftermath of the Pulwama incident in February 2019, when Pakistan had come to the adverse notice of the world for sponsoring and harbouring terror outfits like LeT and JeM.
NIA chief Sadanand Date visits Pahalgam terror attack site
The NIA chief Sadanand Date, on May 1 inspected the site of April 22 terror attack at Baisaran.
Date also had discussion with senior officials of the anti-terror agency probing the case.
NIA teams, aided by forensic and other experts, are checking the entire area thoroughly for evidence to expose the terror conspiracy that led to the attack that has shocked the nation.
The eyewitnesses have been questioned in minute detail to piece together the sequence of events, the officials said.
Separate teams of NIA officials have been visiting across the country to seek details from survivors of the terror attack, said to be orchestrated by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the officials said.
Initial investigations into the massacre indicate that the number of terrorists involved could range from five to seven, they said, adding the attackers were also aided by at least two local militants who received training in Pakistan.
NIA asks people to share with it photos, videos
The NIA on Wednesday appealed to all tourists, visitors and local people who might have any more information, photographs or videos relating to the Pahalgam terror attack to immediately contact it.
The probe agency has already taken possession of a sizable number of photographs and videos showing various aspects of the attack and is examining them.
NIA is keen to examine the content in thorough detail to search for any possible clues to the assailants and their modus operandi.
Tourists and others might have, advertently or inadvertently, seen, heard or clicked some relevant detail that could help NIA unravel the conspiracy behind the unprecedented attack on tourists in Kashmir, officials said.
"It has now decided to scale up its efforts even more intensely to ensure that no useful information or evidence is missed out in its investigation into the horrendous crime against humanity," the NIA said in a statement.
The NIA has urged all such people to call up the agency on 96-54-958-816 and/or 011- 24368800 and share the information.
A senior NIA official will then connect with the caller and arrange for the relevant information/photos/videos etc to be shared with the agency, the statement said.
Several photographs and videos are found to be in circulation on various social media platforms after the terrorist attack, at Baisaran in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, that killed 26 tourists and left several injured on April 22, 2025.
On May 7, hours after the airstrikes conducted by Indian Army, security forces apprehended a suspicious individual, identified as one Ahmed Bilal in Baisaran Valley. He was reportedly wearing a bulletproof jacket and had given evasive answers to the questions posed to him by security forces.
NIA teams have been camping in Pahalgam to examine the attack site for evidence and have also been questioning the witnesses of the horrendous crime, the statement added.
NIA questions man who opened shop 15 days ago, but not on day of Pahalgam massacre
The NIA had questioned a man who had opened a shop in Baisaran valley 15 days before the attacks but not on the day itself, as per a report by Indian Express.
Even a zipline operator who was heard chanting "Allahu Akbar" in a video shot by a person at the site was probed by the NIA. However, he was later released.