Pahalgam Terror Attack: 5 Militants Identified, Including 3 Pakistanis and 2 Kashmiris

Five terrorists, three of them Pakistani nationals and two locals from Jammu and Kashmir, have been identified by authorities as being behind the fatal attack near Pahalgam.

This is one of the worst terror attacks in the region in nearly two decades, and an immediate manhunt has been launched to catch the attackers.

Investigative squads have identified the three Pakistani terrorists as Asif Fauji (code name Moosa), Suleman Shah (code name Yunus), and Abu Talha (code name Asif). Two local Kashmiri agents, Adil Guri of Anantnag's Bijbehara and Ahsan from Pulwama, were also involved in the attack. Guri and Ahsan had also traveled to Pakistan in 2018 for training and then returned to carry out the attack.

Fauji and Shah were known to have been active in Jammu and Kashmir for a time, having participated in previous attacks, including an attack on Poonch, officials say. Tuesday's attack on Pahalgam's Baisaran meadow was particularly gruesome, with the terrorists forcing civilians to prove their religious identity by reciting Islamic prayers or revealing physical markers such as circumcision, according to early reports from witnesses.

After the attack, Jammu and Kashmir police have released sketches of three suspects and announced a reward of Rs 20 lakh for information that will lead to their arrest.

One of the attackers, code-named Moosa, has also been linked to the May 2024 attack on an Indian Air Force convoy near Poonch. Lack of CCTV surveillance around the area of Baisaran meadow has complicated investigations, and officials now depend heavily on survivor accounts to piece together a timeline of the incident. The attackers are estimated to have retreated towards the higher reaches of the Pir Panjal following the ambush.

A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) headed by Inspector General Vijay Sakhare has arrived in Srinagar to oversee the investigation. The NIA has taken over the case, and support is being provided by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Saifullah Kasuri, a deputy to LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, is in the limelight. A social media uploaded video shows Kasuri declaring Kashmir a "land of the pure" by February 2026 and threatening that there will be an escalation of militant activity over the next couple of years to free the territory from Indian occupation.