Digital footprints suggest Pakistan’s hand, say investigators

Indian intelligence agencies have traced the digital footprints of the Pahalgam attackers to safehouses in Muzaffarabad and Karachi, establishing Pakistan’s hand in the attacks and indicating the use of a remote control-room , much like the one that was used in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks , highly placed officials directly involved in the investigation said.

At least 26 Indian tourists, all men, and mostly Hindu, were targeted by terrorists on Tuesday, in one of the worst attacks seen in the valley in years.

Preliminary forensic analysis and statements from the survivors have revealed that the five terrorists involved in the killings were well-equipped, with automatic weapons including AK rifles and sophisticated communication devices, and that some of them even wore military-style fatigues.

“Our intelligence intercepts suggest a direct link with operatives based in Pakistan. We have traced the digital footprint to some safehouses in Muzaffarabad and Karachi, which have been the key hubs for Lashkar-e-Taiba’s previous major attacks in India that are supervised by Pakistan army and the ISI from control centres,” said one of the people cited above.

Intelligence inputs also suggest that there was a coordinated state-backed conspiracy to send highly skilled terrorists in larger number to India recently.

Citing inputs, a second person said that in December last year and January this year, “there were alerts that Pakistan army and ISI were actively facilitating infiltration of highly skilled terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad from the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) into India.”

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), in February and March, carried out extensive searches at several locations in Jammu and Kashmir to look for these infiltrated terrorists and overground workers who were helping them.

It is suspected that after entering India and, these terrorists were guided by local overground workers, who also provided them food, shelter and money, to different locations.

NIA itself said in a statement in March that “terrorists were believed to have made their way to the hinterland districts of Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar, Reasi, Rajouri, Poonch, and also to the Kashmir valley.”

A senior official who deals with intelligence in Kashmir said “currently, there are estimated 55 to 60 highly trained foreign terrorists in the Valley”.

Pakistani spy agency ISI, according to the second officer , has equipped terrorists with Alpine Quest app in its offline version; this is a navigation app which is often used by professional trekkers.

“There is information that ISI has provided details of Indian security forces camps, police convoy movement, and barricades with this app to the infiltrated terrorists,” he said, adding that the terrorists are also using encrypted radio communication devices which have servers in Pakistan.

A third officer said the terrorists stay in mid-ridge areas of the Valley, avoiding lower altitudes.

Following the Pahalgam attack, the Centre is learnt to have directed the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Army to completely crack down on infiltration.