NEW DELHI: Indian Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday alleged that security forces recovered Pakistani voter ID cards and chocolates bearing Pakistani labels from three militants killed in a recent encounter in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), claiming they were behind the April attack on Hindu tourists in Pahalgam.
“I want to tell … the entire nation that these were the three terrorists who killed our citizens … and now all three have been killed,” Shah told parliament during a discussion on the India-Pakistan conflict.
The attackers, who New Delhi said were Pakistani nationals — an allegation denied by Islamabad — had opened fire in a valley popular with tourists in IIOJK’s scenic, mountainous region of Pahalgam, before fleeing into the surrounding pine forests.
The attack led New Delhi to launch attack on Pakistan, leading to four days of intense fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
India suffered an embarrassing loss at the hands of Pakistan in May after Islamabad launched Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos in retaliation for India’s Operation Sindoor.
Pakistan, during the 87-hour conflict, downed its six fighter jets, including three Rafale, and dozens of drones. The war between the two nuclear-armed nations ended on May 10 with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States.
Addressing the parliament, Indian home minister said that India had a “lot of proof” that the dead “terrorists” were Pakistanis as security forces had recovered Pakistani voter identity cards of two of them and chocolates made in Pakistan.
Forensic tests showed that the rifles they had with them were used in the April attack, he added. The three were killed in an intense gun battle in a occupied Kashmir forest on Monday, the Indian army said.
A day earlier, India launched a new covert military operation titled “Operation Mahadev” to cover up its recent failures in conflict with Pakistan.
The plan, the sources told Geo News, includes reviving fake encounter tactics and framing illegally detained Pakistanis as cross-border terrorists.
According to security sources, the Indian military has begun staging fake operations under the banner of Operation Mahadev following the failure of its earlier campaign, Operation Sindoor.
These fake encounters are part of a broader plot to suppress the growing freedom movement in IIOJK and to salvage the political credibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
The sources said Indian authorities intend to use Pakistani detainees already held in Indian jails in these staged operations. Under the plan, detainees will be killed and later declared terrorists who crossed the border.
