The National Investigation Agency, while filing a detailed charge sheet in the Pahalgam terror attack, is pursuing a new international lead: how a US-made GoPro camera that was shipped to China ended up with Lashkar-e-Taiba cadres, officials said.
Investigators recovered the high-tech camera from militants who were killed in an encounter in the Dachigam forests following the April 22, 2025 Baisaran massacre. The device has launched a broader inquiry into cross-border logistics and the supply chains that provide hardware, funds and tactical equipment to anti-India groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
GoPro Inc responded to an official NIA inquiry by confirming the specific unit had been dispatched to an authorised commercial distributor in China, according to officials familiar with the probe. The agency is now tracing the intervening links to determine how the camera moved from that Chinese distributor to handlers connected to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Investigators are exploring several possibilities, including diversion through third-party traders or acquisition by state or non-state actors in Pakistan, with the hypothesis that such commercial items could have been bought and later relayed to militant groups. Officials stressed these lines remain under active investigation and no final conclusion has been reached.
India and China do not have a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, so cooperation on such matters must proceed through diplomatic channels, which can slow forensic tracing and document sharing.
The charge sheet focuses on the immediate operational aspects of the Baisaran attack but leaves the wider external network probe open. The Pahalgam assault, in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were gunned down, prompted Operation Sindoor targeting terror infrastructure and camps across Pakistan-controlled areas, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed facilities.
Three militants involved in the attack were later killed in an Army special forces encounter in the Dachigam forests. Weapons recovered from the Baisaran site and the encounter area included at least two AK-47 rifles whose components traced back to China, according to investigators.
Preliminary on-ground inquiries indicate the attackers escaped from the meadows through nearby jungle and had a roughly 40-minute window before security forces could fully assess the situation. A vehicle with a Shopian registration was seen leaving Pahalgam but subsequently vanished from camera coverage, hampered in part by several malfunctioning CCTVs along exit routes.
The NIA has named Lashkar-e-Taiba and six individuals in the charge sheet. The three slain terrorists are identified as Faisal Jatt alias Suleman, Habeeb Tahir alias Chottu, and Hamza Afghani. The agency has also charged the self-styled Lashkar commander Sajid Jatt alias Sajid Jutt.
Two local residents, Bashir Ahmad Jothatd and Parvaiz Ahmad, are accused of providing shelter and sustenance to the attackers in the days before the strike. Investigators say the militants were given food and basic supplies, including turmeric, red chillies and salt packed in a polythene bag, plus cooking utensils, blankets and a tarpaulin.
A blanket recovered at the Dachigam encounter site proved a key piece of evidence. Forensic testing identified a hair strand on the blanket and DNA analysis matched it to material taken from Bashir Ahmad Jothatd’s home, linking the support provided to the militants with the items found at the scene.
The probe continues into possible additional local and external collaborators, and authorities say tracing the camera’s procurement and distribution chain is a priority for exposing broader vulnerabilities in the transnational networks that arm and equip militant groups in the region.
