NIA traces 'Hamas-inspired' religious screening and GoPro filming in Pahalgam attack

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has expanded its probe into the 2025 Pahalgam attack, opening a "Hamas angle" to investigate structural, tactical, and operational linkages between West Asian terror tactics and Pakistan-based terror outfits.

The investigative shift comes as part of a wider crackdown on a highly complex cross-border web dubbed the "D-6" terror plot. Authorities believe this network was deliberately engineered to replicate the brutal, close-range swarming tactics used during the October 7 attacks in Israel.

The multi-site attack on April 22, 2025, in South Kashmir’s tourist hub of Baisaran Valley, left 26 people dead, mostly tourists, becoming the deadliest assault on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir in nearly two decades.

Also read | Pahalgam terrorists served food, given shelter by a local, NIA charge sheet reveals

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The Hamas method

According to NIA officials tracking the conspiracy, the execution of the Pahalgam attack diverged sharply from traditional Kashmiri militancy, instead mirroring the specific operational doctrine of Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades.

Investigators point to several highly specific indicators uncovered during the forensic and digital analysis of the scene.

To begin with, attackers affiliated with the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its front organisational branch, The Resistance Front (TRF), systematically isolated victims by forcing them to recite religious verses or checking for physical markers before executing them point-blank.

Plus, the terrorists used mounted action cameras to film the killing in real-time.

The NIA recently traced the digital history of a recovered GoPro Hero 12 Black camera used by the neutralised terrorists. The device was legally manufactured in Europe, shipped to an authorised distributor in China, activated in Dongguan, and subsequently smuggled across the border into the hands of LeT operatives in J&K.

The crossover has led the anti-terror agency to formally investigate whether local tech-radicalised operatives received direct digital handbooks, dark-web blueprints, or cryptographic financing routed through modules sympathetic to global pan-Islamic terror factions.

Also read | How Pakistan bank linked to Pahalgam terror attack is also ‘connected’ to 9/11

Links to the 'D-6' multi-city plot

The Pahalgam assault is now being treated not as an isolated local ambush, but as the initial operational phase of the broader "D-6" conspiracy. The overarching plot aimed to deploy vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), commercial drones, and shoulder-fired rockets against high-value targets across major Indian cities, including temples and military logistics infrastructure.

"If needed, we will go to the netherworld... We will go everywhere possible to find individuals who are linked to this terror blast network," said Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the ongoing international investigation.

While the physical executors of the Pahalgam massacre, identified as foreign mercenaries Suleman, Hamza Afghani, and Zibran, were successfully killed by security forces during Operation Mahadev in the Dachigam forests, the NIA’s focus has firmly shifted to the orchestrators operating from safe havens in Pakistan.

A Special NIA Court in Jammu has already issued an official Letter Rogatory to judicial authorities in China via the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC) to legally trace the financial transactions and end-users who purchased the tactical gear deployed in the valley.

Concurrently, agency officials are mapping out the over-ground worker (OGW) matrix within India to isolate the white-collar, highly educated technical handlers who facilitated the drone logistics, safehouses, and communication protocols that bridged the gap between Pakistani state-backed terror groups and global extremist methodologies.