Tip-Off From Nomads, Drone Confirms: How Pahalgam Terror Plotters Were Hunted In Forest

Thermal drone zeroed in on resting militants after local nomads raised alarm in dense Pahalgam forests.

Photo Source: Instagram

Sri Nagar/New Delhi: It took over three months, several intelligence inputs and hours of combing operations to bring the Pahalgam terror accused to justice. The men behind the April 22 massacre were no ordinary foot soldiers. They belonged to The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy outfit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. All three were highly trained to evade tracking.

Security forces began the chase from the very day of the attack. The terrain was difficult. The trails were cold. The men had gone underground. Then came the first break.

In a span of over two weeks, two separate signals were picked up. Both came from Chinese-origin communication devices. The coordinates pointed toward the outskirts of Srinagar. Forces began to close in. The final lead came over the weekend.

By July 28, the net had closed. A joint team from the Indian Army, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Jammu and Kashmir Police moved into the forest belt near Dachigam. The encounter ended there. All three suspects were neutralised. The information that cracked the case came from an unexpected source.

Nomadic shepherds, who move with the seasons and know the forest trails better than anyone, noticed something unusual such as a camp, a trail and unfamiliar movement. They passed it on. The input proved decisive.

Security teams intercepted a second signal on July 26. It was traced to Lidwas near the Mahadev peak. The location was close to Mulnar, inside the Dachigam forest area. Teams fanned out and ground surveillance was intensified. Close to urban Srinagar, the area was considered sensitive. Intelligence suggested the men were carrying heavy arms and using advanced Chinese communication gear.

Officials now confirm that a first signal had also been picked up earlier, on July 11. It had pinged from the same Baisaran valley in Pahalgam where the April 22 attack had occurred. The attack left 25 tourists and one local dead.

Security agencies had been tracking their trail since then. The terrorists kept changing location. The pressure was relentless. Then came the moment. A thermal drone spotted something unusual in the forest canopy.

The drone hovered silently above the dense forest canopy, scanning the ground below with its thermal camera. Then came the unmistakable heat signature too defined to be anything else. Human figures, lying low. The outline of a tent appeared faint but clear on the infrared feed. No movement. Just stillness. The thermal imaging left no room for doubt. This was not a false alarm. Command received the confirmation. That was all they needed.

Within moments, the final go-ahead was given. The operation was set in motion. The site where the encounter took place lies deep in forest, about 30 km from the nearest inhabited village, Chak Dara. The region sits on the edge of Anantnag district. From the Baisaran valley in Pahalgam, the route through the forest spans around 50 km. The dense stretch passes through Aru Wildlife Sanctuary.

Security sources say the three terrorists had moved on foot. They used forest tracks, stayed away from paved roads, carried everything on their backs and relied on camouflage and silence.

Locals played an important role. Just as they once did in exposing Pakistani movement during Kargil, the nomadic shepherds observed everything. They saw the tent. They noticed movement. They shared what they knew. That set the final trap.

Around 11:30 AM on July 28, the three men were resting in a temporary camp. They appeared calm and unaware. The encounter began without warning. It ended within hours.

All three were Pakistani nationals. One of them, Suleiman, had been trained at Lashkar’s camp in Muridke. The others, Hamza Afghani and Jibran, were part of the same unit.

The operation was code named ‘Operation Mahadev’. It ended what began on a tragic spring afternoon in April. The hunt, which spanned jungles, valleys and villages, came full circle under a forest canopy where justice finally caught up.