7 months ago
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Mohammad Yousuf Katari, an Over Ground Worker (OGW) arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, had met the terrorists progressive successful the April 22 Pahalgam attack 4 times and handed them an Android telephone charger, a cardinal grounds which yet led to his capture, officials successful Srinagar said connected Sunday (October 5, 2025).
Mr. Katari, 26, was arrested successful the past week of September for allegedly providing important logistical enactment to Sulieman alias Asif, Jibran, and Hamza Afghani, the 3 terrorists who gunned down 26 people, mostly tourists, successful the edifice municipality of Pahalgam.
Mr. Katari is alleged to person told the constabulary during the interrogation that helium had met the 3 connected 4 occasions successful the Zabarwan hills extracurricular Srinagar city, officials said.
His apprehension came connected the backmost of weeks of investigation.
The breakthrough came pursuing an in-depth forensic investigation of worldly recovered from the tract of Operation Mahadev, a counter-terror cognition launched successful July, which resulted successful the sidesplitting of 3 terrorists progressive successful the Pahalgam massacre, successful the foothills of the Zabarwan Range connected the outskirts of Srinagar.
Police zeroed successful connected Mr. Katari aft examining a partially destroyed Android mobile telephone charger, 1 of the respective items recovered during the operation.
The Srinagar constabulary astatine magnitude tracked down the archetypal proprietor of the charger, who confirmed selling the telephone to a dealer, a portion of accusation that, by and by, led constabulary to Katari.
Officials said that Mr. Katari, who reportedly taught nomadic students successful the higher reaches, had been a cardinal assets for the panic group. His assistance is believed to person included providing the charger and guiding the attackers done the hard terrain.
The terrorists Sulieman alias Asif (mastermind of the Pahalgam attack), Jibran (linked to the October 2024 Sonamarg Tunnel attack), and Hamza Afghani were killed connected July 29 successful an brushwood nether Operation Mahadev.
While officials declined to springiness further details, citing the ongoing investigation, the apprehension is seen arsenic a important measurement successful dismantling the panic enactment web functioning successful the Kashmir valley.
They indicated that the lawsuit whitethorn yet beryllium transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is already probing the larger conspiracy of the Pahalgam attack.
The NIA has truthful acold arrested 2 radical successful transportation with the April 22 panic onslaught for allegedly providing logistical enactment and structure to terrorists.
