How the PIB cast a cloud over the identities of the killed Pahalgam terrorists

A cryptic statement played up by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the Government of India on 4 August 2025 — a week after home minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha that three “Pahalgam attackers” were killed on 28 July near Srinagar under Operation Mahadev — renewed questions around their ‘identities and background’.

This is the statement, from the Integrated Defence Staff HQ, that the PIB amplified on 4 August 2025 on its Fact Check handle on X:

A report on identities and background of the Pahalgam attackers is being circulated through media/social media handles and attributed to the Services. No authorised media handle of the Indian Armed Forces has prepared or issued any such document. Neither have any remarks of this nature been made by the Armed Forces Public Relations Offices/nominated spokespersons. The report appears to be a compilation of information on post-encounter findings, collated from open sources.

🚨 Social media accounts are spreading a Report on the Identities and Background of the Pahalgam Attackers'.

▶️ No authorised media handle of the Armed Forces has prepared or issued any such document.

▶️ No remarks of this nature have been made by the Armed Forces Public… pic.twitter.com/7UphgDvi3a

— HQ IDS (@HQ_IDS_India) August 4, 2025

The statement went largely unnoticed, possibly because it was so sketchy and revealed no detail whatsoever. It did not identify either the report or the media outlets which may have carried the information. Ordinarily the PIB is quick to debunk ‘fake news’ and is not always shy of identifying the news source. The statement (release ID: 2152335) was released at 8:44 p.m. and may have been spotted only by defence correspondents.

The defence sources, however, were not so coy on 28 July following the actual encounter.

Media reports quoted sources in the Indian Army to report that the alleged mastermind of the Pahalgam terror attack and his two associates had been killed.

Pahalgam terror attack mastermind among three terrorists killed near Srinagar, claim officials

A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) team reportedly arrived in Srinagar early on 29 July 2025 for the identification of the bodies of the three terrorists. The same day, the prime minister and the union home minister confirmed in Parliament, which had taken up a discussion on Operation Sindoor in the Lok Sabha, that the slain terrorists were involved in the Pahalgam attack on tourists on 22 April.

“The three terrorists who massacred civilian tourists at Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam have been killed,” said home minister Amit Shah. “We ensured that terrorists do not flee to Pakistan,” he added.

He also identified the three slain terrorists as Suleman alias Faizal Jatt, Hamza Afghani, and Zibran, and declared that all of them were Pakistani nationals and members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The three men were tracked with the help of human and technical intelligence in an operation led by the Intelligence Bureau, Army, Central Reserve Police Force, and the Jammu and Kashmir police, the minister claimed.

The union home minister also informed that the identity of the terrorists and their involvement was confirmed with the help of ballistic and forensic reports and the testimony of four other witnesses, including the two accused who had given them shelter a day before the attack. Pakistani voter identity cards and chocolates made in Pakistan were found on the two terrorists, establishing that they came from Pakistan, he said.

“Two AK-47 rifles and an M4 carbine rifle were recovered from their bodies. The spent cartridges recovered from Baisaran (Pahalgam) meadow were matched with the weapons recovered during Operation Mahadev yesterday. These weapons were flown on a special plane to the Chandigarh forensic laboratory last night. I had a video call with six ballistic experts at 5 a.m. today, and they confirmed the use of these weapons at Pahalgam,” the minister added.

So, what does one make of the PIB release issued a week later? What is it referring to and what is it denying, if it is denying anything at all?

Surely the PIB is not questioning the statement of the union home minister or suggesting that he provided misleading information to the Lok Sabha?

Pahalgam terrorists killed during Operation Sindoor debate in Parliament: Coincidence?

Journalists in Srinagar confirmed that nobody had questioned the home minister’s version of events declared in Parliament, although sceptics did ask why the terrorists would go around with their voters’ ID card (Pakistan apparently does not even issue such cards) and the wrappers of chocolates made in Pakistan three months after they killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam.

Ten years earlier, fake encounters would have been questioned, said one of them, but no longer. Newspapers in Jammu and Kashmir would now be more than content to publish the government’s press statements as fact, they confirmed.

What could have then provoked the PIB into releasing the vague statement? That remains the the yet-unanswered question.