Pakistan has consistently denied its involvement, and that of its state-sponsored terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, in the April 22 terrorist attack in the Baisaran Valley of Pahalgam. But now, in a sensational development, ABP News and Indian security agencies have accessed conclusive proof linking Pakistan and its proxy, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), to the Pahalgam attack.
As part of ‘Operation Mahadev’ conducted by the Indian Army on July 28, three terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack were neutralised. They were identified by their code names: Suleman Shah alias Faizal Jutt, Hamza Afghani, and Jibran Bhai. ABP News and intelligence agencies have now accessed Pakistani Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) of two of these terrorists, conclusively proving they were Pakistani nationals operating under fake names in Kashmir.
One of the ID cards reveals that Suleman Shah alias Faizal Jutt’s real name was Bilal Afzal, a resident of Lahore, Pakistan. His CNIC starts with the digits 35401, which, according to Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), is the unique identifier code for residents of Lahore district. His father’s name is mentioned as Mohammad Afzal Khan, and the CNIC was officially issued by NADRA in 2019.
The second terrorist whose CNIC has been obtained is Hamza Afghani, also known as Habib Tahir or Habib Khan. His CNIC was issued in 2016, and the initial digits of the card match codes used for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). ABP had earlier revealed that Hamza Afghani was a resident of Aziz village in Khairgala, Rawalakot (PoK). Before joining Lashkar-e-Taiba, he was a member of the student wing (SLF) of Yasin Malik’s Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in Rawalakot.
Now, ABP News has accessed exclusive video footage showing terrorist Hamza Afghani during his early training days at the Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters in Muridke. In the video, he is seen swimming in a Lashkar-operated training pool—a regular component of the group’s militant training curriculum. The footage dates back to when Hamza was around 18 or 19 years old and still affiliated with the Student Liberation Front (SLF), the student wing of Yasin Malik’s JKLF. This phase marked his early indoctrination before he underwent advanced combat training at Lashkar’s Rawalakot-based training facility, Markaz Shuhada-e-Kashmir.
According to sources, Hamza Afghani was recruited into Lashkar-e-Taiba while in college. During his SLF tenure, he came into contact with two key Lashkar figures in PoK: Rizwan Hanif (Deputy Chief of LeT in PoK) and Mufti Abu Musa alias Abdullah Kashmiri (LeT Chief in PoK). It was these two who facilitated his month-long primary indoctrination and military training at Markaz Taiba, Muridke. There, he was trained in weapons handling, horse riding, and swimming. The newly accessed video from Muridke shows Hamza in the swimming pool during his primary training at the LeT headquarters.
Satellite imagery analysis confirms that the swimming pool seen in the video is located within the 200-acre compound of the Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters in Muridke, which was destroyed by Indian forces in Operation Sindoor at 12:35 AM on May 7. With the recovery of the Pakistani ID cards of Bilal Afzal alias Suleman Shah alias Faizal Jutt and Habib Tahir alias Hamza Afghani, it is now undeniably proven that the Pahalgam attackers were Pakistani nationals, trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba, and operated under false identities in Kashmir.
The visual evidence from the Lashkar headquarters further exposes Pakistan’s lie. Despite repeated denials, the video and ID documents confirm that all Pahalgam attackers were Grade-A Lashkar operatives — specially trained and deployed by Pakistan to execute high-profile strikes on Indian soil.
