NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the Pahalgam terror attack has revealed that terrorists fired in the air after targeting individuals, possibly with intent to deter others from either helping the victims or in jubilation, sources said on Wednesday.
Narrating the events that lead to the barbaric killings, a key witness told the central agency team that he was confronted by three terrorists at the Baisaran meadow moments after they had committed the massacre, the sources said.
NIA investigators have recovered empty cartridges from the location where the firing took place, supporting the eyewitness account, they said, adding, a witness told the sleuths that he was asked to recite the Kalma and was possibly spared him because his accent confirmed he was a local.
The investigators have also corroborated the testimonies of the witness and the harbourers, successfully identifying the terrorists, the sources said, adding, one of the three has been identified as Hashim Musa, a former Pakistan army regular. Musa is also suspected to be the mastermind behind the Sonmarg Z-Modh tunnel attack which resulted in the deaths of six labourers and a doctor.
“The other two have no previous records and appear to have infiltrated recently for the Pahalgam attack,” an intelligence official said.
Agencies have also found no prior records for the harbourers, Parvaiz Ahmed and Bashir Ahmad and suspect that this was a deliberate strategy by Pakistan state actors to create a new module with minimal involvement of local terrorists, known as Over Ground Workers. They believe that this was done to maintain secrecy.
Earlier it was believed that there were three to five terrorists, who carried out the attack, but so far, the NIA has identified three LeT terrorists.