Plan to focus on vacationers in Pahalgam was in movement week earlier than assault, terrorists used trekking app to log coordinates | India Information
4 min learnSrinagarUp to date: Jun 25, 2026 06:26 AM IST
The plan to assault vacationers at Baisaran valley in Kashmir’s Pahalgam was energetic round April 15 final yr, as per digital data recovered from terrorists killed after the assault. This revelation, The Indian Specific has learnt, figures within the Nationwide Investigation Company chargesheet filed in reference to the April 22, 2025 assault which left 25 vacationers and an area ponywallah lifeless.
The company’s probe, it’s learnt, notes that the telephone of a terrorist killed throughout ‘Operation Mahadev’ within the Srinagar space on July 28, 2025, “contained two map screenshots time-stamped April 15 and 16, depicting places close to Baisaran”.
The screenshots point out the factors had been plotted in a cell app, “in keeping with coordinates being obtained from the (Pakistan-based) handler Sajid Jatt”, the NIA is learnt to have stated. “These timestamps present the conspiracy was stay no less than from April 15 onwards.” The GPS-based cell app in query is used for mountaineering and mountain expeditions, however was utilized by terrorists to share and observe coordinates.
Three terrorists — Faisal Jatt alias Suleman, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and Hamza Afghani — had been killed on July 28 within the Dachigam forests close to Srinagar.
The Pahalgam terror assault left 25 vacationers and one native civilian lifeless.
In line with the NIA probe, the three visited a dhok (a mud hut constructed within the higher reaches of the Valley and utilized by shepherds in the summertime) of native resident Parvaiz Ahmad on April 21. Parvaiz and his uncle, Bashir Ahmad Jothad, stand accused of offering meals and shelter to the terrorists a day earlier than the assault.
“The evaluation of the extracted knowledge of the 2 cellphones revealed a number of images of terrorists, screenshots of chats with the terrorist handler, particularly Ali Sajid alias Ali Bhai, giving instructions to the stated terrorists and navigational knowledge for additional actions, screenshots of the app exhibiting coordinates of places close to Baisaran Park, Pahalgam,” the NIA is learnt to have stated. Sajid, a Pakistani nationwide, has been named because the commander of the proscribed terrorist outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and its proxy, The Resistance Entrance.
Detailing his involvement within the assault, the NIA is learnt to have identified that even whereas being positioned in Pakistan, Sajid “conceived, coordinated and directed the Baisaran operation by sustaining a clandestine encrypted communication community, pushing coordinates and logistic duties (drone drop), issuing relocation orders, and controlling route navigation.” The module executed these orders whereas conducting the assault.
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A protected witness, who recognized Faisal’s physique, is learnt to have instructed investigators that he had encountered Faisal together with three different terrorists in September 2024. The 4, as per his recorded statements, spoke Punjabi and Urdu. “They had been speaking about one Sajid Jat and a location despatched by him in Gogal Dara Jungle the place a drone would drop a consignment,” the NIA is learnt to have stated. The witness instructed investigators he was pressured to take them to that location, “the place a drone dropped a yellow-colored packet that contained 20 pistols, Rs 15 lakh, and triangle-shaped bombs.”
The investigation “clearly established” that two telephones recovered from the terrorists “had been offered in Pakistan”. The probe can also be learnt to have highlighted the usage of specialised apps to “talk on their cellphones with overground employees (OGWs)”.
The company additionally famous Baisaran’s distant location and the shortage of CCTV masking its expanse made it a goal for the terrorists. The NIA questioned over 1,100 witnesses in the course of the investigation. The chargesheet was filed earlier than the Particular NIA Courtroom in Jammu in December 2025.
