Plan to target tourists in Pahalgam was in motion week before attack: NIA chargesheet

📌 Summary:

• NIA chargesheet (filed before Special NIA Court, Jammu, Dec 2025) on the April 22, 2025 Pahalgam attack that killed 25 tourists and a local ponywallah reveals the plot was active from at least April 15
• Phone of a terrorist killed in 'Operation Mahadev' (July 28, 2025) held two map screenshots time-stamped April 15-16 of locations near Baisaran valley, plotted in a GPS hiking/expedition app used to share coordinates
• Coordinates were received from Pakistan-based handler Sajid Jatt (alias Ali Sajid/Ali Bhai), named commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its proxy The Resistance Front (TRF)
• Sajid, sitting in Pakistan, 'conceived, coordinated and directed' the operation via encrypted comms — pushing coordinates, ordering a drone drop, issuing relocation and route-navigation orders
• Three terrorists (Faisal Jatt, Habeeb Tahir, Hamza Afghani) killed July 28 in Dachigam forests; locals Parvaiz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad Jothad accused of providing food and shelter
• A protected witness described a drone dropping a yellow packet with 20 pistols, Rs 15 lakh and triangle-shaped bombs in Gogal Dara jungle
• Two recovered phones were 'sold in Pakistan'; remote Baisaran with no CCTV was chosen deliberately; over 1,100 witnesses questioned

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 Internal Security — cross-border terrorism, role of external state and non-state actors, use of encrypted apps/drones by terror modules; GS2/IR India-Pakistan dimension

📝 Prelims Facts:

• The Resistance Front (TRF) is a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
• NIA filed the chargesheet before the Special NIA Court in Jammu (Dec 2025)
• Operation Mahadev (July 28, 2025) neutralised the three attackers in Dachigam

🔑 Key Term: Overground Workers (OGWs) — local sympathisers who provide logistics, shelter and communication support to armed terrorists.