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Thenewsdose.com
New Delhi, July 29, UPDATED:1.15PM
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday confirmed in Parliament that the very rifles recovered from three terrorists killed in the recent Dachigam encounter were the same weapons used in the brutal Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 civilian lives.
“Ballistic analysis of the rifles and cartridge cases conclusively established that these were the same weapons used in the attack on our civilians,” Shah told the House. He said cartridge casings recovered from the Pahalgam site had been forensically examined earlier, and when the terrorists were neutralised in Dachigam, the seized M9 American rifles matched those shell casings.
The Home Minister informed members that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had already arrested those who provided shelter to the attackers. “When the bodies of the slain terrorists were brought to Srinagar, these arrested individuals were called in for identification and confirmed all three identities on the spot,” he said.
Shah provided a detailed timeline of “Operation Mahadev”, launched on May 22, 2025. “The attack took place at 1 PM. I reached Srinagar by 5:30 PM,” he stated. That same day, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) received specific human intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists in the Dachigam forest range. A decision was immediately taken that the perpetrators must not escape to Pakistan under any circumstances. Security forces moved swiftly to block potential escape routes and track the attackers.
The operation culminated in the killing of three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists — Suleman alias Hashim Musa (the alleged mastermind), Jibran, and Hamza Afghani — whose movements had been under surveillance for over a month through coordinated human and technical intelligence inputs.
