Home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha during the debate on Operation Sindoor that the three militants killed near Srinagar were involved in the Pahalgam attack, the official confirmation coming 24 hours after the encounter.

The security establishment had not offered any confirmation on the identities of the slain militants on Monday.

Security forces gunned down the trio in a forest on the outskirts of Srinagar on Monday as part of Operation Mahadev. The encounter coincided with the start of the Operation Sindoor debate in Parliament.

However, details about the slain militants were not made public, possibly for Shah to make the big announcement in the Lok Sabha where the Opposition had come prepared to corner the government for its failure to hunt down the perpetrators of the April 22 massacre.

“I want to tell Parliament and the nation that those who murdered our citizens in the Baisaran Valley, these three were among them, and I want to congratulate the army, the CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir police for their success in Operation Mahadev,” Shah told the Lower House as BJP members broke into chants of “Har Har Mahadev”.

“I want to tell all the families today that Modiji, through Operation Sindoor, eliminated those who sent the attackers, and today our security forces have also eliminated those who carried out the killings,” he added.

Shah identified the three Pakistani terrorists as Suleiman alias Faizal, Afghani and Gibran and claimed that the security agencies had “full proof” evidence of their involvement in the killing of 26 people in Pahalagam. He said Suleiman was an “A-grade” Lashkar commander while the other two were “A-grade listed” terrorists.

Shah said the identities of the slain terrorists were confirmed by those who had been arrested for sheltering them. “They confirmed that the three killed terrorists were those involved in the Pahalgam attack,” he said.

Waving what he said was a report of the forensic science laboratory in Chandigarh, Shah said it had confirmed that the arms — M-9 and AK-47 rifles — recovered from the terrorists were the same used in the Pahalgam massacre.

“There is no room for doubt. I am holding the ballistic report, six scientists have cross-checked it and confirmed to me over a video call at 4.46am today that the
bullets fired at Pahalgam and the bullets fired from these guns were a 100 per cent match,” he said.

Training his guns on the Opposition benches, the home minister said they looked “upset” about the terrorists’ death.

“I thought the Opposition would be happy to know that the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack had been killed, but they look upset. Their faces look smeared by ink. Terrorists have been killed, but they are not happy,” Shah said.

Singling out the Opposition members who had on Monday questioned the government’s competence in hunting down the terrorists, he said: “I want to tell them that we had ensured that the terrorists could not escape to Pakistan and now they have been eliminated.”

Shah blasted the Congress over senior leader P. Chidambaram’s remark suggesting that the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack could be homegrown.

“P. Chidambaram, the former home minister, is asking what proof do we have that the terrorists came from Pakistan. Why is he trying to save Pakistan? Before the whole world, he is giving a clean chit to Pakistan. The Congress has no right to ask questions,” Shah said as the BJP members shouted “shame, shame”.

Shah said Chidambaram could have asked him for proof and went on to inform the House that “Pakistani voter IDs of two of the killed terrorists, as well as chocolates made in Pakistan”, had been recovered from the encounter site.

“The Opposition is asking why we did not go to war, but war has many consequences,” Shah said as the Opposition benches demanded answers on US President Donald Trump’s mediation claims and the lost opportunity to capture Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Shah, however, skipped any mention of Trump and seized on the current regime’s favourite punching bag — Jawaharlal Nehru.

“In 1948, our forces had the upper hand in Kashmir. Sardar Patel kept insisting we press forward, but Jawaharlal Nehru unilaterally declared a ceasefire. Let me say this with full responsibility that Nehru is responsible for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Not just that, even in the Indus Waters Treaty, Nehru handed over 80 per cent of India’s river water to Pakistan,” Shah said, seeking to corner the Congress.

Opposition leaders had on Monday said Shah as home minister couldn’t escape responsibility for the Pahalgam carnage.

The home minister hailed Indira Gandhi for liberating Bangladesh but slammed the former Prime Minister for inking the Simla Agreement with Pakistan. He said 93,000 prisoners of war and 15,000sqkm of Pakistani territory were under Indian control after the 1971 war. “But when the Simla Agreement happened, they forgot to demand PoK and even gave back the land we had won,” Shah said.

He slammed the Congress for scrapping the Prevention of Terrorism Act enacted by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2002, terming it an effort to weaken the fight against terrorists and appease the Muslim vote bank.

“Between 2005 and 2011, there were 27 terrorist attacks. What did the Congress governments do? They just sent dossiers to Pakistan,” he said.

Referring to the 2008 Batla House attack, Shah accused Congress leader Sonia Gandhi of shedding tears over the death of terrorists in the encounter and not the slain police officer.

Patting himself on the back, Shah claimed that there had been a 70 per cent reduction in terror incidents in Jammu and Kashmir and a 115 per cent increase in the deaths of terrorists since the scrapping of Article 370.

“Earlier, processions used to come out after the killing of a terrorist. Today, terrorists are buried at the very place they are killed,” he said as BJP MPs chanted “Bharat mata ki jai”.