Amodest transaction of Rs4,000 between three Pakistani nationals and two local men in Pahalgam—Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar and Bashir Ahmad Jothar of Batkote—laid the foundation for the brutal terror attack on April 22. Each year, as the snow begins to melt, tourists flock to Kashmir, prompting local people to set up seasonal huts known as dhoks around the pine forests, meadows and picturesque trails. Three months ago, Parvaiz and Bashir did the same when they were approached by three infiltrators from across the border, who offered Rs4,000 for shelter, food and logistical support. The duo offered one more service: sharing the movement of security forces, details of deployments and the timing when the remote Baisaran valley would see heavy tourist footfall.
Parvaiz and Bashir, who have since been arrested by the National Investigation Agency, told officials that the Pakistani nationals were affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and used the shelter from April 15 to conduct reconnaissance of multiple tourist locations, including Betaab valley, Aru valley and an amusement park, before choosing Baisaran for its relatively high terrain and absence of permanent security posts.
Last year, the Jammu and Kashmir administration had issued instructions that no tourist gatherings should take place without security clearance. The directive applied to all tourist activities, including zip lines, spot adventures and travel to designated destinations. At Baisaran valley, a private player had applied for a lease from the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation but had neither completed payments nor informed the administration or police. It is learnt that they began operations on April 19. “Rains had visited Baisaran valley and the weather was inviting. The duo informed the LeT terrorists that tourists were being taken up there,” says an investigator.
Local involvement is being seen as part of a well-entrenched pattern in Kashmir since the 1990s, where civilians—whether motivated by money, fear or ideology—are exploited by Pakistan-backed terror groups. “While accountability is essential for those who lend support to terrorists, it is equally necessary to dismantle the larger terror machinery that uses locals to dilute responsibility for the terror incidents orchestrated by Pakistan,” says D.K. Pathak, former director general of the Border Security Force.
In the Pahalgam investigation, this becomes most crucial because several layers of camouflage used by Pakistan to evade scrutiny have come to light. The first was the use of local people; the second, the creation of The Resistance Front, which projected itself as a home-grown movement until evidence forced its designation as a Pakistan-backed outfit by India and the United States. Intelligence officials say the third cover is presenting the attack as an LeT activity, although it was a covert operation by the Special Services Group of the Pakistan army.
“Unlike previous terror strikes, the Pahalgam attack was a covert war, using civilian-targeted terror to destabilise the region,” says a senior official. Supporting this claim, investigators have found that Chinese-made encrypted communication equipment—the Ultra Set—were used to conceal the communication by the Pakistani attackers, who were sent in to carry out precision strikes before making their way back across the border. Investigators believe these devices, initially developed by the Chinese army and handed to the Pakistan army, bypass regular mobile networks and route compressed messages via satellites to control stations in Pakistan.
Indian security forces have the capability to track the time period when this highly sophisticated communication device is activated and shut down, though not its content. The fact that its use has been detected during the Pahalgam attack has corroborated at least three leads. First, the Pahalgam strike was orchestrated by Pakistan army commandos. Second, high-tech military tools for communication are now being deployed to obstruct investigations. Third, there is a common thread between Pahalgam, the attack on labourers in Gagangeer in Sonamarg during the construction of the Z-Morh tunnel and the attack on an Army vehicle in the tourist hotspot of Gulmarg’s Bota Pathri area last year.
Investigations are on, but more important is the continuation of Operation Sindoor, based on a multi-pronged strategy to dismantle cross-border terror camps, expose the direct role of Pakistan’s military, conduct counter-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir to flush out militants and enhance capabilities to decode communication systems designed to elude Indian surveillance and hamper investigations. It is also important to amplify the voices of Kashmiris and victims of terror who have found themselves caught in the crosshairs of a war they had nothing to do with.