In a chilling demonstration of science backing national security, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Parliament on Tuesday how forensic ballistics played a decisive role in linking the three terrorists eliminated in Operation Mahadev to the brutal Pahalgam terror attack of April 22.
Addressing the Lok Sabha, Shah said that the weapons recovered from the terrorists, including one M9 and two AK-47 rifles, were flown overnight to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Chandigarh in a special aircraft. There, forensic experts conducted a series of ballistic tests to establish whether these firearms were the same ones used in the Pahalgam massacre.
According to Shah, forensic scientists fired the seized weapons to produce fresh cartridges, which were then matched with spent bullet casings and shells recovered from the Pahalgam attack site. The markings on these casings, microscopic striations unique to each firearm, were compared in a process known as firearm identification, a standard investigative method that treats the marks as the equivalent of a fingerprint.
Six scientists at the CFSL cross-verified the findings and personally confirmed to the Home Minister over a video call that the bullets matched with “100 percent certainty.” “I have the ballistics report in my hand,” Shah said, underscoring that the forensic conclusion had been unanimously agreed upon by the experts.
The three terrorists, including Hashim Musha alias Suleman Shah, the mastermind behind the Pahalgam attack, were neutralised by Indian security forces on Monday near the Mahadev Hills on the outskirts of Srinagar. Prior to the forensic confirmation, Shah said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested individuals who had sheltered the attackers. These individuals were brought in to identify the bodies after the encounter, further corroborating the link.
Operation Mahadev was launched based on intelligence inputs and targeted the same terror cell responsible for the Pahalgam carnage, which claimed the lives of 26 innocent civilians.
The Home Minister’s statement in Parliament offered a rare inside look at the meticulous nature of post-encounter investigations, particularly how forensic science, often conducted behind closed lab doors, can conclusively link crime to criminal. It also reaffirms the government’s zero-tolerance approach to terrorism, with science serving as a potent weapon in the fight for justice.
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