MHA Hands Over Pahalgam Terror Attack Investigation To NIA As Teams Record Key Eyewitness Statements
Pahalgam terror attack investigation handed over to NIA as teams record statements of key eyewitnesses, including family members of victims. . Massive search operations continue in dense forests near the attack site.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has handed over the investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which left 26 people dead, to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), news agency IANS reported. This comes as a three-member NIA team on Saturday recorded the statement of Priya Darshani Achariya, wife of Prashant Satpathy, a Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology (CIPET) employee, who was among the victims. The NIA team visited Satpathy’s native village, Ishani under the Remuna block in Balasore district, Odisha, around 11 am and continued the investigation till 3 pm, the family members said.
An official told news agency PTI that Achariya’s statement is crucial to the investigation as she and her 9-year-old son Tanuj were eyewitnesses to the killings. During the statement recording, other members of the deceased’s family were not allowed into the room, the official said. When reporters sought comments, a member of the NIA team said, “No comment,” before leaving Ishani village.
Prashant Satpathy’s elder brother, Sushant Satpathy, said, “I was not present during the statement recording. What I gathered is that they asked questions about the physical appearance of terrorists, and what terrorists asked tourists before the killing of innocents. They also wanted to know her whereabouts during the firing. The NIA team also asked whether the victims received any help from locals and others.”
Prashant’s mother said that the family demanded stringent action against the culprits and fully cooperated with the NIA team.
Prashant Satpathy (41) had travelled to Jammu and Kashmir on a vacation with his wife and son when the tragedy occurred.
Meanwhile, a three-member NIA team also visited the residence of Samir Guha, another victim of the Pahalgam attack, in Kolkata’s Behala area to record statements of his family members. A senior official told PTI that the team would also meet the wife of Bitan Adhikari, another deceased, in the Baishnabghata area to document her statement. “We will record the statements of the family members of Guha and file a report on that. We will also visit Adhikari’s house and talk to his wife to take a detailed note of the attack,” the official said.
The victims from West Bengal have been identified as Bitan Adhikari (Baishnabghata, Kolkata), Samir Guha (Sakher Bazar, Kolkata), and Manish Ranjan (Jhalda, Purulia).
Pahalgam Terror Attack: NIA Teams Reach Out To Eyewitnesses As Hunt For Terrorists Underway
According to officials cited by PTI, special NIA teams have started reaching out to eyewitnesses, including tourists who survived the deadly attack carried out by terrorists of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
Security forces, including Jammu and Kashmir Police, Army, and paramilitary forces, have intensified operations, deploying drones, UAVs, and sniffer dogs, to hunt down the terrorists hiding in the dense jungles of the Pir Panjal range, overlooking Pahalgam and the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.
Preliminary investigations suggest that five to seven terrorists were involved in the attack, supported by at least two local militants who had received training in Pakistan, officials said, as per PTI.
Officials also revealed that before NIA formally took over, its teams began speaking to survivors from Tuesday itself, seeking clues to track down the perpetrators. The deadly attack, which occurred at Baisaran, an expansive meadow about six kilometres from Pahalgam town, has sparked widespread outrage and spontaneous protests across the Valley — an unprecedented development in the three-decade-long history of terrorism in the region.
Investigators have identified two prime suspects: Aadil Thokar alias Aadil Guree of Bijbehara and Asif Sheikh of Tral. Officials said Thokar had crossed into Pakistan in 2018, where he underwent armed training with LeT before returning to India. During a search operation, explosives found at their houses reportedly detonated, destroying the buildings, officials said, as per PTI.
Family members of Thokar and Sheikh claimed they were unaware of their whereabouts.
According to eyewitnesses, four terrorists lined up tourists at the Baisaran meadow and fired at point-blank range, while at least one to three others kept watch for security forces. The terrorists reportedly carried body cameras to record the act. Eyewitnesses shown several photographs identified Thokar as the terrorist who fired during the attack.
Officials added that security agencies have released sketches of three suspected Pakistani nationals involved — Asif Fauji, Suleman Shah, and Abu Talha — who operated under the code names Moosa, Yunus, and Asif respectively, and were previously involved in terror incidents in Poonch.
A reward of ₹20 lakh each has been announced for information leading to the neutralisation of the terrorists.
Security agencies are also on high alert following intelligence inputs suggesting plans for attacks on vulnerable railway infrastructure, Kashmiri Pandits, and non-locals working in the Valley. Railway security personnel have been advised to limit unnecessary movement in local markets to minimise vulnerability.
Officials warned that Pakistan’s espionage agency, ISI, is plotting targeted attacks on Kashmiri Pandits and police personnel in Srinagar and Ganderbal districts. A massive anti-terror operation is ongoing in the dense forests near the attack site, but authorities said there has been no contact with the fleeing terrorists yet.
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