According to officials, teams of the Army, the Rashtriya Rifles and paramilitary forces are scanning the upper reaches of Anantnag, where the terrorists are suspected to be hiding. A source in Jammu and Kashmir Police said they are using technical evidence and inputs from local tribal communities to aid in their manhunt.

The two Pakistani terrorists have been identified by Anantnag Police as Ali Bhai alias Talha and Hashim Musa alias Suleiman.

Police have already released their sketches along with that of local Lashkar-e-Taiba recruit Adil Hussain Thoker, believed to be the third Pahalgam attacker. Police have also announced a reward of Rs 20 lakh for any information leading to their arrest.

Musa is suspected to be involved in the Z-morh tunnel attack in Sonmarg on October 20 last year, which left seven people employed with a construction firm dead.

Sources said the identity of the three attackers was confirmed by piecing together information provided by eyewitnesses, video footage recorded by tourists and local guides, and information available with security forces about active terrorists in the Valley.

“Several photographs of active terrorists were shown to eyewitnesses. They identified Musa from one of the photographs. From there, the identity of other attackers was confirmed based on all the available information,” a security establishment officer said.

Sources said the photograph from which Musa’s identity was confirmed had been recovered from the phone of slain local LeT terrorist Junaid Ahmed Bhat. Captured on CCTV camera while perpetrating the Z-morh attack, Bhat was killed last December in the Dachigam forests. Police recovered a phone from his body, which had his photographs with other terrorists, including Musa. Sources said Ali Bhai was also part of the same group.

A resident of Bijbehara in Anantnag, Thoker had gone to Pakistan on a student visa after crossing the Wagah border in 2018 but went on to join an LeT terror training camp in Pakistan. He returned with the two Pakistani terrorists a year and a half ago, sources said. Before going to Pakistan, Thocker had taught at a private school in Kashmir.

Sources said the terrorists have since been operating in the Poonch-Rajouri, Baramulla and the South Kashmir region. Sources said investigators are also probing if they were involved in the October 24, 2024, Boot Pathari attack which killed three Army personnel and two porters in an ambush. The attack, though, was claimed by the People’s Anti Fascist Front, an offshoot of the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Sources said that Musa is considered to be highly trained and adept at living off the jungle. Sources said he could be from among the same lot of infiltrators who have terrorised Jammu over the past three years, killing more than 50 Army personnel with precision firing and stealthy movements.

Investigators are also looking into whether the same group was involved in the killing of three Army personnel in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district in August 2023.

The terrorists are also suspected to have been involved in an attack in Jammu’s Poonch district in May last year, wherein an Air Force personnel was killed and four others injured, sources said.

The National Investigation Agency’s investigation has also indicated that during the firing, the terrorists urged their accomplices to hurry up so they could leave. Prima facie, the autopsy reports indicate that 12 of the victims had gunshot injuries to the head.

Source:- The Indian Express