The chargesheet filed in the ghastly Pahalgam terror attack has revealed that the plot to carry out the terror attack was live on April, 15, 2025, seven days before the attack. The Pahalgam terror attack happened on April 22, 2025, in which 25 male Hindu tourists were brutally shot dead by Pakistani terrorists after verifying their religion.
According to The Indian Express, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) examined the digital records recovered from the terrorists killed after the terror attack and found out that the conspiracy to carry out the attack was active around April 15, 2025. Three terrorists, Faisal Jatt alias Suleman, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and Hamza Afghani, were killed in the Dachigam forests near Srinagar on July 28, 2025, in Operation Mahadev, carried out in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.
The phone of one of the terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev contained two map screenshots, time-stamped April 15 and 16, depicting locations near Baisaran. According to the NIA, the three terrorists visited a mud hut belonging to a local, Parvaiz Ahmad, on April 21, 2025. Parvez and his uncle, Bashir Ahmad Jothad, are accused of providing food and shelter to the terrorists a day before the attack.
The data extracted from the mobile phones of the terrorists showed screenshots of chats with their handler, Ali Sajid alias Ali Bhai, who was constantly in touch with them and giving them directions. Sajid is a Pakistani national who has been named as the commander of the proscribed terrorist outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and its proxy, The Resistance Front.
“The analysis of the extracted data of the two mobile phones revealed several photos of terrorists, screenshots of chats with the terrorist handler, namely Ali Sajid alias Ali Bhai, giving directions to the said terrorists and navigational data for further movements, screenshots of the app showing coordinates of locations near Baisaran Park, Pahalgam,” the NIA reportedly said.
According to the NIA, Sajjid “conceived, coordinated and directed the Baisaran operation by maintaining a clandestine encrypted communication network, pushing coordinates and logistic tasks (drone drop), issuing relocation orders, and controlling route navigation” from Pakistan. The terrorists carried out the terror attack as per his directions.
The NIA questioned over 1,100 witnesses during the investigation. A protected witness identified terrorist Faisal Jatt’s body and told the agency that he met Faisal along with three other terrorists in September 2024. He said that all four terrorists spoke Urdu and Punjabi and were talking about one Sajid Jat. He was forced to take the terrorists to a location where a drone dropped a sealed packet.
“They were talking about one Sajid Jat and a location sent by him in Gogal Dara Jungle where a drone would drop a consignment,” the witness is said to have told the NIA, adding that he was forced to take the terrorists to the location “where a drone dropped a yellow-colored packet that contained 20 pistols, Rs 15 lakh, and triangle-shaped bombs”.
The NIA probe established that the two phones recovered from the terrorists were sold in Pakistan. The agency found out that the terrorists used specialised apps to “communicate on their mobile phones with overground workers (OGWs)”. The probe also disclosed that the terrorists chose to carry out the terror attack at Baisaran Valley due to its remote location and the lack of CCTV surveillance.
December 2025.
