Three months on, Pahalgam incident mystery remains unsolved
Recent Dachigam encounter raises fresh questions
New Delhi: Three months after the controversial Pahalgam false flag operation, the Modi government has yet to reveal the actual circumstances surrounding the incident. No transparent investigation report has been presented so far.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the government’s narrative is increasingly being viewed as deceptive. The situation has been further complicated by a recent alleged encounter in Dachigam, Srinagar, where Indian forces claimed to have killed three suspects linked to the Pahalgam attack. However, these same individuals had previously been removed from the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) initial suspect list, raising serious doubts about the legitimacy of the encounter, which many now label a “fake shootout.”
Indian police had released sketches of the alleged attackers just two hours after the Pahalgam incident, using them to justify the demolition of several homes in Kashmir. Later, the NIA disowned both the sketches and the initial suspect list. In June and July, multiple local shepherds were detained and reportedly tortured to force confessions linking them to alleged Pakistani militants—yet no evidence was found. Now, with the timing of the Dachigam encounter coinciding with the Indian Parliament’s Monsoon session, critics allege the operation was staged to divert growing opposition criticism of the so-called Operation Sandhoor.
Doubts persist over whether the slain individuals had truly evaded capture for three months in the forests, or if they had already been in Indian custody and were used to fabricate a success story.
The Dachigam operation, now being touted by the Modi government as part of ‘Operation Mahadev,’ is being presented as a major counter-terror victory. However, analysts and opposition leaders describe it as a politically motivated move aimed at shielding the government from scrutiny, discrediting Pakistan, and escalating repression in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. They draw comparisons to the 2006 Mumbai bombings, in which 12 innocent Muslims were wrongfully imprisoned for 19 years before being acquitted by the Bombay High Court.
Congress and other opposition parties have called for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the Pahalgam attack. They questioned why, if Operation Sandhoor was so successful, six Indian aircraft were destroyed. The announcement of the Dachigam killings, made immediately after an emergency meeting attended by Prime Minister Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and JP Nadda has further deepened suspicions.
Critics state that the government is evading the truth and misleading the public, asserting that Operation Mahadev may simply be a desperate attempt to salvage the BJP’s eroding credibility.
