A month on, Pahalgam attack perpetrators remain at large

Pahalgam: A month after 25 tourists and a local ponywallah were killed by terrorists in Pahalgam, the perpetrators are still at large despite the massive crackdown launched by security forces across the Kashmir valley to track them down.

While several top terrorists have been killed in various operations launched after the deadly April 22 attack at Baisaran meadows, the terrorists who carried out the massacre have eluded the security forces, officials said on Thursday.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which took over investigation in the case, has questioned more than 100 suspects who might have been directly or indirectly involved in the massacre.

Among those questioned are people who used to provide various services -- food-stall owners, zipline operators and ponywallahs -- to the tourists at Baisaran meadows, the officials said.

The NIA released sketches of three suspects, identified as Adil Hussain Thoker, a resident of Anantnag, and two Pakistani nationals -- Ali Bhai aka Talha Bhai and Hashim Musa aka Suleiman -- who are believed to have carried out the attack.

Posters later appeared at various places, offering a reward for information leading to arrest or neutralisation of the perpetrators of the massacre.

The authorities have offered a reward of Rs 20 lakh to encourage public cooperation in apprehending the suspects, aiming to expedite the ongoing investigation process.

The investigators are believed to have analysed the mobile dump data around Pahalgam on the day of the massacre and videos captured by tourists moments before the attack to retrace the path taken by the terrorists to reach Baisaran.

However, the efforts have not yielded any breakthrough yet, the officials said.

Terrorists descended on the picturesque Baisaran meadows of Pahalgam on April 22 and shot dead 25 tourists and a local man who tried to save them. Though the exact number of terrorists who carried out the attack is not known, sources have said there were between four and six terrorists.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the terrorists shot the victims after verifying their religion by asking them to recite the "kalma", the verse recited to profess Islamic faith.

The officials said the security forces had been carrying out relentless operations to track down the terrorists.

"They have managed to evade the security forces thus far but it won't be too long before we get them," a senior police officer said.

Thousands of suspects across Kashmir were called in for questioning while hundreds were detained as the security grid launched a massive crackdown to hunt down the perpetrators of the massacre.

Nearly 100 persons were booked under the Public Safety Act and sent to various jails.

There are reports that security forces also picked up youngsters who had already served terms for past associations with militancy.