Digital footprints suggest Pak hand

Indian intelligence agencies have traced the digital footprints of the Pahalgam attackers to safehouses in Muzaffarabad and Karachi, establishing Pakistan's hand in the attacks and indicating the use of a remote control room, much like the one that was used in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, highly placed officials directly involved in the probe said.

- Neeraj Chauhan

NEW DELHI: Investigators on Wednesday identified five terrorists who carried out the deadly attack near Pahalgam town a day ago, including three Pakistani nationals and two residents of Jammu and Kashmir, as authorities stepped up efforts to nab the perpetrators of the worst terror strike to rock the region in nearly two decades.

The agencies identified three Pakistani nationals — Asif Fauji (code name Moosa), Suleman Shah (code name Yunus) and Abu Talha (code name Asif), said people aware of developments. Two other Valley-based operatives — Adil Guri, a local from Bijbehara in Anantnag who went to Pakistan in 2018, and Ahsan, a resident of Pulwama who also went to Pakistan in 2018 — were also identified, said the people cited above.

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.

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.

Officials said the attackers spoke Urdu while interacting with the civilians, before shooting them at close range.

"Any tourist who refused to comply with their instructions related to proving their religious identity was summarily executed," said an officer.

A second officer said, "There is a clear plan to stoke communal tensions and disrupt tourism growth in Kashmir."