LeT Commander Farooq Ahmad, Whose House Was Razed In Kupwara, Played Key Role In Pahalgam Attack

According to sources, Ahmad's network of overground workers helped terrorists carry out the attack in Pahalgam. He is a top commander of Lashkar and is believed to be currently hiding in PoK.

Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Farooq Ahmad's name has emerged during NIA probe into Pahalgam terror attack.

Source : Ankit Gupta

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed that the network of top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Farooq Ahmad played a role in helping terrorists carry out the Pahalgam terror attack.

Farooq Ahmad’s house in Kupwara was demolished by security forces as part of its crackdown on terrorist spots in Kashmir following the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives.

According to sources, the network of overground workers prepared by Ahmad helped terrorists carry out the attack in Pahalgam. He is a top commander of Lashkar and is believed to be currently hiding in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Over the past two years, his network of overground workers has carried out several terrorist attacks in Kashmir, the most prominent being the Pahalgam attack. Sources also said that Ahmad has been staying in touch with his network in India through secure apps while operating from Pakistan.

According to inputs, he frequently travelled between Pakistan and India from 1990 to 2016. Several associates of Ahmad have been taken into custody since the Pahalgam attack.

Sources also said that Ahmad has been facilitatating infiltration into Kashmir from three sectors in Pakistan and is known to be well-aware of the mountainous routes of the Valley.

NIA Records Statements Of Survivors

Meanwhile, the NIA has been recording statements of survivors of the Pahalgam attack. On Tuesday, the agency recorded the statements of a Cuttack-based family. Ranjit Bhol (69) along with his wife Sashi Kumari Nayak (65), younger son Sandeep (35), and daughter-in-law Lelina Subhadarshini (33), were in Baisaran in Pahalgam on April 22 when the attack happened. 

The investigators spent two hours at their residence in Deuli Sahi in Tulasipur, Odisha, news agency PTI reported.

A young man from Jalna city in Maharashtra, who was in Kashmir before the attack took place, has claimed that one of the suspected attackers in the Pahalgam terror case spoke to him a day before the attack took place on April 22.  

Recalling his interaction with a man at a food stall in the Baisaran Valley on April 21, Adarsh Raut said, "Hindu ho kya. You don’t look like you are from Kashmir".

Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, were killed and several were injured when terrorists opened fire at a meadow near the popular tourist town of Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on April 22. 

Pahalgam Attack: Pakistan Army Trained Commando Hashim Musa Identified as Key Mastermind

‘Instead Of Dirty Politics…’: Mayawati Urges Parties To Unite Amid Tensions Over Pahalgam Attack