First photos of two Pahalgam attackers who were killed in Operation Mahadev

The first visuals of Habib Tahir and Jibran, two Pakistani terrorists involved in the April 22 Pahalgam attack. Neutralized in a precision operation by Indian forces in Srinagar, the duo now joins a growing list of foreign infiltrators brought to justice.

Hashim Musa, top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander who was named top conspirator and executor of the Pahalgam attack, was also gunned down during the operation.

Sources told media that the terrorists were caught off guard while napping inside a tent. The encounter was not pre-planned but triggered by a chance spotting. Two days after a cordon was laid in the Dachegam forest area, personnel from 4 Para identified the terrorists in a hideout and opened fire without delay, killing all three on the spot.

A senior official privy to the operation confirmed that the terrorists were lying in a resting position at the time of the strike. It’s a common tactic, officials explained, for terrorists to remain constantly on the move, taking short rest breaks—often the reason they evade detection for extended periods. But this time, their luck ran out.

The operation was launched after a lone Chinese satellite phone was detected as active in the Baisaran area on July 11.

What is Operation Mahadev ? - 

Operation Mahadev is the name given to a recent high-level joint counter-terror mission conducted by the Indian Army, CRPF, and Jammu & Kashmir Police to neutralize terrorists involved in the Pahalgam terror attack. 

During Operation Mahadev they had successfully neutralized three A-category terrorists—Suleiman alias Fazal, Afghan, and Zibran—involved in the Pahalgam terror attack. All three militants, affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, and responsible for the killing of civilians in the Baisaran valley, were eliminated during this coordinated operation.