Operation Sindoor debate: 3 terrorists involved in Pahalgam eliminated, Amit Shah announces in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) "A-category" terrorists who carried out the Pahalgam attack have been killed in ‘Operation Mahadev’ and their identities and involvement in the April 22 massacre has been established with the aid of those helped them and forensic and ballistic tests, Home Minister Amit Shah announced in Lok Sabha on Monday.

Intervening in the Special Discussion on Operation Sindoor, Shah said the terrorists were identified as Suleman alias Faizal, Afghani and Jibran and were killed in the joint operation by the Army CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police near Srinagar. He said an M9 and two AK-47 rifles, which were used in Pahalgam, were recovered from them, he said.

He found fault with former Home Minister PC Chidambaram for doubting the nationality of the terrorists involved in Pahalgam strike and said security forces have recovered Pakistani voter IDs of two of the terrorists as well as chocolates made in Pakistan.

Shah said Suleman was an A-category commander of the Let while Afghan and Jibran were A-grade terrorists. "All these three terrorists who killed our citizens in the Baisaran valley have been eliminated," he said, amid chants of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' by the BJP MPs.

To ensure that these terrorists were linked to the Pahalgam attack, he said people who used to supply food and shelter to them were detained earlier and once the bodies of these terrorists were brought to Srinagar, they identified the three as those involved in the terror strike.

As they needed more confirmation, Shah said the M-9 and AK-47 rifles were flown to Chandigarh on Monday night in a special flight for examination at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. The empty cartridges found at Pahalgam and those after test firing by the recovered guns were matched by the forensic lab, Shah said.

"The FSL report of the cartridges from the terror attack was already ready...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... I have the ballistic report. I have six ballistic experts confirming this. In a video call at 4:46 AM, they told me these are the same bullets used in the Pahalgam attack," he said.

Shah said security forces were instructed not to allow terrorists to leave the country. He said surveillance was mounted and there was human intelligence about the presence of the terrorists following which officers used equipment that could capture ultra signals used by the terrorists. The sensors captured signals on July 22 following which the operation was launched, he said.

Attacking the Congress, he accused its leaders of shielding Pakistan over linkages to the Pahalgam terror attack and cited Chidambaram's remarks. He said the senior was seeking proof of terrorists being from Pakistan, giving clean chit to Pakistan and asked, "what will you earn by saving Pakistan?"

Defending the Prime Minister for his Bihar visit two days after Pahalgam, Shah said Narendra Modi’s address was not “election speech” as claimed by the Opposition but "reflection of the resolve of 140 crore Indians to fight terror".

He also attacked first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and later Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, accusing them of giving leverage to Pakistan and China.

Shah claimed that Indian forces were in a decisive position to take back Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir in 1948 but Nehru declared unilateral ceasefire while in 93,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered and India had 15,000 sq km Pakistan territory under control in 1971, but PoK was not taken back by Indira. He also alleged Nehru had bid goodbye to Assam in a speech on Akashvani in 1962.

On Manmohan Singh's time, he said there were 27 terrorists attacks. "What did Congress government do? They just sent dossiers to Pakistan...Those opposed to POTA will never appreciate Narendra Modi's anti-terror policies," he added.