Indian security sources claim that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) planned the April 22, 2025, terror assault in Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians, with the full consent and guidance of Pakistan’s military and political leadership.
With stringent directives from ISI to keep the operation restricted to foreign terrorists—no Kashmiri militants were included—and minimal local backing permitted only on a “need-to-know” basis, the attack’s preparation closely resembled that of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The hit squad consisted exclusively of Pakistani nationals. The operation was led by Sulaiman, identified as a suspected former Pakistani special forces commando, who had received training at the LeT’s Muridke headquarters in Punjab, Pakistan. He infiltrated into Jammu & Kashmir in 2022. Two other Pakistani nationals reportedly made up the rest of the core team.
A week before the attack, Sulaiman was in the Tral woodland area, according to satellite phone records, suggesting reconnaissance and planning in the vicinity of Baisaran, the assault’s final location. Prior to this incident, Sulaiman had a history of being militant, having taken part in the Poonch Army truck attack in April 2023.
Only Sulaiman’s direct involvement has been verified by Indian investigators thus far; Hashim Musa and Ali Bhai, two other alleged Pakistani terrorists, have not been conclusively connected. Additionally, there is no solid proof that Adil Hussain Thoker, a local extremist, was a facilitator.
Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, two Pahalgam residents, were detained for giving the assailants basic assistance in the form of food, housing, and logistics in return for a small payment. They maintain that they had no knowledge of the planned mass assault on visitors.
The actual attack was carefully planned: the team, equipped with AK-47s and M4 carbines, entered the tourist-heavy Baisaran meadow, questioned visitors to identify their religion, and then killed Hindu men, one Christian visitor, and a local Muslim who attempted to stop them.
The degree of violence and planning—dividing victims based on their faith and excluding some as surviving witnesses—further demonstrates a carefully thought-out, ideologically motivated attack intended to frighten tourists from other countries.
Approximately 68 foreign terrorists and only three locals were among the active militants in Kashmir at the time of reporting, supporting the assertion that groups from across the border planned, planned, and carried out the Pahalgam operation nearly entirely.
India accused Pakistan of state-sponsored terrorism following the attack, which sparked a serious diplomatic crisis, a cross-border escalation, and even active military operations in the area. The Pahalgam tragedy is still the bloodiest assault on Indian citizens since the 2008 Mumbai attacks and serves as a clear example of intricate, cross-border terror logistics that are purportedly approved at the highest levels of Pakistani government.
