Overview
- The agency submitted the chargesheet to the NIA Special Court in Jammu on December 15, formally charging Lashkar-e-Taiba and its proxy The Resistance Front for planning, facilitating and executing the April 22 attack.
- Those named include Pakistan-based handler Sajid Jatt, three Pakistani gunmen later killed in July’s Operation Mahadev in the Dachigam forest, and two local men accused of harbouring the assailants.
- Investigators cite decoded end-to-end encrypted communications between the attackers and a Pakistan-based controller, along with digital and forensic material recovered from the terrorists’ phones.
- The case invokes provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the Arms Act 1959 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, including charges related to waging war against India.
- The massacre left 25 tourists and one local dead in religion-based targeted killings at Pahalgam’s Baisaran meadow, and the NIA says further investigation continues after filing within the 180-day deadline.