Overview

• Jammu & Kashmir Police arrested Mohammad Yousuf Katari in late September as an alleged overground worker linked to the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
• Forensic analysis of a partially destroyed Android charger recovered after July’s Operation Mahadev traced a chain of ownership that pointed to Katari.
• Investigators say Katari, 26, met the three militants at least four times in the Zabarwan hills and provided logistical support, including the charger.
• The three accused attackers — Sulieman alias Asif, Jibran, and Hamza Afghani — were killed on July 29 during Operation Mahadev on Srinagar’s outskirts.
• Officials call the arrest a key step toward dismantling the local support network, with the case likely to be folded into the ongoing NIA-led conspiracy probe that has already produced two arrests.