New Delhi, Apr 23: Indian security agencies on Wednesday released sketches of the terrorists involved in the deadly Pahalgam attack that claimed the lives of 26 civilians, most of them Hindu tourists.
Sketches of three terrorists are expected to speed up the ongoing manhunt to neutralise those responsible for the cold-blooded killings.
According to officials, the sketches were prepared based on eyewitness accounts and preliminary intelligence inputs gathered from the site of the attack in Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
The visuals have been circulated across police stations, checkpoints, and intelligence units in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in adjoining regions.
Security forces have intensified the counter-terror operations in the area, launching a combing drive to trace the attackers, believed to be members of The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy outfit of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The group had claimed responsibility for the gruesome assault in which unarmed tourists were fired upon at close range.
A senior police official, while confirming the release of the sketches, said the move is aimed at seeking public assistance in tracking the movement of the terrorists. “People are urged to remain alert and report any suspicious individual matching the sketches to the nearest police unit,” the official said, adding that identities of informants will be kept confidential.
This development comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to Delhi, cutting short his official visit to Saudi Arabia. Upon landing, he held a high-level security briefing with NSA Ajit Doval, EAM S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, and other top officials. Home Minister Amit Shah has also reached Jammu and Kashmir to review the situation on the ground.
The targeted killings have reignited painful memories of the 1990s, when terrorist groups carried out a series of attacks aimed at terrorising the Hindu population and displacing entire communities. (Agencies)
