New Delhi (TIP): The Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year was planned by The Resistance Front (TRF)/Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT) terrorist Sajid Saiffullah Jatt, aka Langda, who shared the co-ordinates of the Baisaran meadow with the attackers; one of the terrorists involved was also part of a terror strike on the Srinagar-Leh highway in October 2024; and the three terrorists involved sat outside the meadow and had lunch before launching their attack, and indulged in celebratory firing after it.
These details are part of the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) charge sheet, which also offers proof of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack that killed 25 tourists and one pony operator by tracing IP addresses of social media accounts and purchase details of the two phones retrieved from the attackers. The charge sheet, filed on December 15 last year, but details of which have just emerged, also gives a blow-by-blow account of the run-up to the attack. HT has reviewed a copy of the charge sheet.
The agency has named seven accused: Sajid Jatt, based in Pakistan’s Kasur; the three attackers –– Faisal Jatt alias Suleman, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran Bhai and Hamza Afghani (all three were killed in a gunfight with security forces on July 28, 2025); locals Bashir Ahmad Jothatd and Parvaiz Ahmad; and LeT/TRF in the charge sheet. They have been charged with murder and waging war against India, and relevant sections of the Arms Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
According to the charge sheet, Faisal Jatt, believed to be at large in Pakistan, shared the co-ordinates of the meadow with the three attackers on April 15.
According to the charge sheet, data retrieved from two phones recovered from the terrorists revealed “chats with Sajid Jatt giving directions to them … and screen shots of the Alpine Quest app showing co-ordinates of locations near Baisaran Park”. Both phones, NIA said, based on data from the Indian arm of the phone manufacturer Xiaomi, were sold in Pakistan.
On April 21, the three arrived outside the dhok (hut) of Parvaiz Ahmad, roughly a kilometre from the meadow. Ahmad was arrested on June 22 last year along with Jothatd, a pony operator and his maternal uncle. It was Jothatd who first encountered the trio at around 4pm on April 21. They demanded a safe place and food in the name of Allah, according to the charge sheet.He recognised them for what they were, andlet them into the hut.Ahmad, his wife Tahira, and their infant child were present. The three asked that their weapons be hidden, and asked for food; while eating, they grilled the uncle and nephew about the upcoming Amarnath Yatra, camps of security forces nearby, and their movements. According to the charge sheet, they also spoke to Jatt. The terrorists sheltered in the hut for around five hours, and left at around 10pm, after getting Tahira to make them some rotis, and taking some spices, two checked blankets, tarpaulin and a cooking pot. Before leaving, they gave Ahmad ?3,000.
Jothatd and Ahmad saw the terrorists the next morning (April 22), the charge sheet added, when they reached Baisaran Park for work. The three were sitting outside the fence, but the uncle and nephew did not think to warn security forces, tourists, or even their fellow pony operators. Before entering the park, the terrorists sat under a tree and ate lunch, the NIA charge sheet said. After some time, they took out blankets from their bags and draped them over themselves. Two of the three terrorists then moved towards the point from where a rivulet entered Baisaran Park and sat there to observe the activities inside, the charge sheet added.
Then they launched their attack at 2.23pm.
Faisal Jatt carried the M4 carbine was wearing a GoPro camera around his head; two of them, Tahir and Afghani (AK-47s), moved straight towards the main entry gate of the park along the toilets, while Faisal Jatt moved towards the end of the zipline. According to the charge sheet, the three “systematically verified the religious identity of the victims before killing them”.
“Victims who could not recite the kalma or who disclosed that they were not Muslims were shot at point-blank range in an execution-style manner. Throughout this sequence, the assailants told the victims ‘Modi ko bolo (Tell Modi)’, making it clear that the attack was intended to send a message to the elected Government of India, thereby evidencing the ideological intent behind the act,” it added.
According to the charge sheet, co-ordinated attacks from the zipline in the south and from the main gate/dhabas axis in the north created “an enclosed kill zone in the central meadow”, the motive being to maximise civilian casualties. The three didn’t spare anyone.
NIA writes that during their getaway, the terrorists encountered three civilians hiding behind trees outside the fence and shot them at close range. They also indulged in “celebratory” firing on their way out, the agency said.
The NIA has cited the testimony of a protected witness (identity is kept secret in such cases) to say that this witness had, on April 21, seen Jothatd signalling three individuals near Ahmad’s dhok and later going inside. Source: HT
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