Kashmir, April 25: With a significant lead to the Pahalgam terror attack, investigators have identified five terrorists who carried out the deadly attack at the Baisaran valley on Tuesday.
Primary investigation into the terrific incident revealed that the terrorists were inspecting circumcision of the male visitors to butcher selecting Hindus.
According to the sleuths, the terrorists involved in Tuesday’s attack in Pahalgam’s Baisaran meadow asked civilians, particularly men, to prove their religion by reciting Islamic prayers or showing physical markers such as circumcision, according to a preliminary investigation by central agencies based on survivors’ testimonies.
The officials said, the attackers spoke Urdu while interacting with the civilians, before shooting them at point-blank range.
“Tourist who refused to comply with their instructions related to proving their religious identity was summarily executed,” said an investigating officer.
“There was a clear-cut motive behind the massacre to wreak communal tensions and disrupt tourism growth in Kashmir”, he added.
The fierce terrorists including three Pakistani nationals and two residents of Jammu and Kashmir are now under the scanner of the investigation agencies.
The agencies identified as many as three Pakistani nationals namely- Asif Fauji (code name Moosa), Suleman Shah (code name Yunus) and Abu Talha (code name Asif). Two other Valley based operatives have been identified as Adil Guri, a local from Bijbehara in Anantnag who went to Pakistan in 2018, and Ahsan, a resident of Pulwama. He also went to Pakistan in 2018 to join in the militant team.
The Kashmiri operatives recently infiltrated into India after getting years of training in Pakistan, but Fauji and Shah were operating in J&K for some time and were involved in previous attacks as well, including in Poonch, said the investigators.
Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have already released sketches of three suspects and announced a reward of ₹20 lakh each for information on them.
One of the attackers was later identified by the central intelligence agencies as Moosa – a code name –was a prime suspect in the May 2024 attack on an Indian Air Force (IAF) convoy in Poonch.
Indian Army & the enforcement agencies are yet to reach at the inhumane men-killers. It is suspected that they have fled to higher ranges of the Pir Panjal after the attack, for which the valley is under an eagle’s eye, sources said.
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team led by inspector general Vijay Sakhare is stationed in Srinagar to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. Officials said the federal anti-terror agency has already taken over the probe, with the J&K police lending them their assistance.
