In the wake of the brutal April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed 26 innocent lives, including 25 tourists and one local, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has formally taken over the case. On Thursday, NIA Director General Sadanand Date visited the attack site, leading an intensified investigation into the incident. The agency had initially supported the Jammu and Kashmir Police but is now independently handling the case, following orders from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ CTCR division. A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed, with the Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, claiming responsibility.

The NIA teams, comprising senior officers and forensic experts, are conducting a thorough examination of the crime scene at the scenic Baisaran valley. They are carefully scrutinizing eyewitness accounts to reconstruct the exact sequence of events and analyzing entry and exit points for clues. The team’s efforts aim to uncover the larger terror conspiracy behind this shocking assault. As part of the investigation, intelligence agencies have identified 14 local terror operatives, aged between 20 and 40, actively collaborating with Pakistan-backed outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Security forces have launched targeted operations in Anantnag and Pulwama districts to track these individuals, who are believed to be providing logistical support to foreign terrorists. Among those named are Adil Rehman Dentoo, Asif Ahmed Sheikh, and Zubair Ahmed Wani, among others. Officials state that this intelligence forms part of a comprehensive dossier aimed at dismantling local terror networks. The NIA’s multi-agency probe, supported by forensic analysis and human intelligence, seeks to expose every layer of the planning that led to one of Kashmir’s deadliest attacks in recent years.