Questions are still being raised about whether the three Pahalgam killers, eliminated by security forces, were Pakistanis or not. Questions are also being raised about whether these killers had singled out Hindus before shooting them in cold blood. In my ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ show on Monday night, we showed how the three terrorists were sent from Pak Occupied Kashmir by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and how they hid in a forest near Srinagar after committing the massacre. Pakistani I-cards, Pakistani chocolate rappers, Huawei satellite phone, and weapons were found after they were killed in an encounter last week.
This are clear evidence of the Pakistani connections of the killers. Pakistan’s NADRA had issued chip-based national identity cards to them. These chip-based cards clearly show details about their families and residences, their fingerprints and photos. All these facts have been retrieved from the chips by our IT experts. Wrappers of Candy Land choco bars and Chocomax, made by a company in Karachi, were found in their bags. Biometric details show that the mastermind Suleiman Shah alias Faisal Jatt, was a resident of Changa Manga village in Kasur, Pakistan, and Abu Hamza was a resident of Kuian village in Rawalakot, PoK.
The Huawei satellite phone, banned in India, was active from April 22 till July 25. It was being used with F-1 bandwidth provided by the British communication satellite Inmarsat-4. It was while tracing this satphone that our security forces reached Dachigam forest, where the killers were hiding. The 7.62 x 39 mm cartridges found from Baisaran valley in Pahalgam that were fired from 3 AK-103 rifles matched with the cartridges from the dead terrorists. Their DNAs matched with the blood stains found in Baisaran valley. Despite such unimpeachable evidence, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry continues to rubbish India’s claims that the killers were Pakistanis. The Pakistani government knows well that the three terrorists, Suleman Shah, Afghan, and Jibran, were all Pakistani nationals. The Pakistan army knows Suleman Shah was a trained commando of its armed forces. Pakistan’s spy agency, ISI, knows the weapons given to these killers were the same that are being used by the Pakistani army. Voter cards and micro-SD cards reveal details about their residences and families. Their biometrics have matched. Yet, Pakistan will rubbish all such proofs and will not admit its guilt.
Pakistan will never admit that these three terrorists were Pakistanis. This is the reason why the Indian government no longer sends ‘love letters’ or dossiers to Pakistan detailing this evidence, and instead sends missiles. India now rains precision-guided bunker-busting bombs on terror hideouts. For India, it makes no difference whether Pakistan accepts this evidence or not. The entire world is aware that Pakistan is training and arming terrorists. The only thing that makes a difference is when senior Indian leaders like P Chidambaram, who has been the Home Minister, refuse to accept the truth. It makes a lot of difference when a Shiv Sena leader like Sanjay Raut raises questions about whether the three killers had singled out Hindus from among the victims and shot them dead. The grieving family members of Pahalgam victims have been saying it clearly that the terrorists first asked the religious identity of the victims and then shot them in cold blood. They did not touch a man who recited the Kalma (Islamic religious verse). The killers only singled out Hindu males, asked them to disrobe and checked whether they were Hindus or Muslims. All these facts were revealed by those sisters and daughters who lost their ‘sindoor’. I think Sanjay Raut has lost his credibility, and his leader, Uddhav Thackeray, will have to bear the political loss.
