The National Investigation Agency filed a supplementary chargesheet on July 6, 2026, before the NIA Special Court in Jammu, naming Pakistan-based terrorist and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed as a key accused in the April 22, 2025 Pahalgam terror attack. The attack killed 26 people—25 innocent tourists and one local civilian—at the Baisaran meadows in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. The agency charged Saeed in his individual capacity and simultaneously as the supreme commander of the banned LeT and its active proxy organisation, The Resistance Front.
The NIA has charged Saeed under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, including the penal section for waging war against India and hatching a cross-border conspiracy. The legal proceedings against those responsible for the attack have now proceeded in two distinct stages, each adding a layer to what the agency describes as a Pakistan-directed conspiracy. The first chargesheet was filed on December 15, 2025, naming Pakistani handler Sajid Jatt as an accused, along with three terrorists who carried out the actual killings. All three perpetrators, Faisal Jatt alias Suleman Shah, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and Hamza Afghani, were subsequently killed by security forces during Operation Mahadev. The first chargesheet also named two locally arrested accused, Parvaiz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, for harbouring the terrorists involved in the attack.
The supplementary chargesheet filed on July 6 builds on that foundation by formally naming Hafiz Saeed, the founder and supreme commander of LeT and TRF, as the overarching conspirator responsible for directing both organisations. The document presents him as the individual who guided and supported the activities that culminated in the Baisaran massacre, operating from across the international border in Pakistan. This formal legal step treats the organisation itself, not merely its members, as a criminal entity before Indian courts. The Resistance Front, which initially claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack before retracting it, is identified as a shadow proxy of LeT, designed to provide plausible deniability for attacks claimed in Jammu and Kashmir.
The formal naming of Hafiz Saeed marks a clear attempt to establish a definitive chain of command, yet the details uncovered in the investigation reveal a more troubling operational reality: the attackers were able to move through mountainous terrain and receive aerial weapons drops for months without triggering early warning systems. This suggests that while the NIA has successfully identified the overarching conspirator, the security apparatus failed to detect the logistical and physical movements of the operatives on the ground. The reliance on technical surveillance alone, without the necessary human networks embedded in the local setting, created a blind spot that allowed the terror cell to operate with relative impunity.
Among the most operationally significant revelations in the NIA’s investigation is the documented use of cross-border drones to supply the terror cell with weapons, cash, and ammunition. The chargesheet documents a specific drone-drop incident in early 2024 at Gogal Dara forest in Baramulla district. A drone delivered a payload that included 20 pistols, Rs 15 lakh in cash, and triangle-shaped bombs, known in the region as Chinese-manufactured grenades. Gogal Dara forest, located in Baramulla district, is in the direct line of sight from across the Line of Control, making it a tactically viable drop zone for UAVs operating from Pakistani territory.
The chargesheet documents how the attackers moved through mountainous terrain and through populated areas for months before striking the tourist hub at Baisaran. The NIA says this journey should have triggered early warning systems at multiple points but did not. Security experts analysing the chargesheet have pointed to this as evidence of a critical decline in the effectiveness of ground-level intelligence gathering across the Valley during the 2022 to 2024 period. The most strategically uncomfortable revelation is not about the attackers, but about the security apparatus that failed to detect them.
Security experts reviewing the NIA’s findings have identified a critical drop in human intelligence, or HUMINT, gathering between 2022 and 2024 as the primary reason the terror cell was able to move freely through the valley. Technical surveillance, satellite imagery, and electronic intercepts can identify known individuals and monitor known infrastructure. However, without human networks embedded in the local setting, it is difficult to track new operatives who have not previously come to the attention of agencies, particularly when moving through vast, heavily forested terrain that is intimately familiar to locals. The role of the Gujjar and Bakerwal nomadic tribes is specifically cited in security analyses of the chargesheet findings. With a combined population of approximately 23 lakh, these communities have for decades been among the most valuable sources of human intelligence in the Pir Panjal ranges. Their knowledge of mountain passes, forest trails, and grazing routes makes them uniquely positioned to notice strangers moving through the terrain.
The relationship between security forces and these communities deteriorated between 2022 and 2023, with many established intelligence sources abandoned and stable communication infrastructure allowed to degrade. Analysts believe this breakdown in trust and the consequent loss of the human intelligence feed that the communities had provided for decades created exactly the kind of operational vacuum that allowed the Pahalgam attackers to move undetected for months. Security experts have called for a systematic review of counter-terrorism tactics to rebuild trust with these communities and reinstate ground-level intelligence networks that were allowed to lapse.
Hafiz Saeed is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its parent organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa. He is designated a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council and by the United States, which has maintained a ten million dollar bounty on him since 2012. The European Union, the United Kingdom, and several other governments have similarly designated him and his organisations. Despite Pakistani authorities designating LeT as a banned terrorist organisation under international pressure, particularly following the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Saeed has continued to operate openly in Pakistan. In 2022, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced Saeed to 31 years of imprisonment on terror financing charges, and he is currently serving that sentence inside Pakistan. The NIA chargesheet adds a new layer of Indian legal proceedings against him, which carry significant diplomatic weight despite the practical challenges of enforcement in Pakistani custody.
The NIA has indicated that the investigation remains open. Further chargesheets may be filed as additional evidence is identified or as further accused persons are apprehended. The three perpetrators who carried out the killings at Baisaran are dead, while the two locally arrested accused remain in custody and are subject to ongoing trial proceedings. The filing of the supplementary chargesheet on July 6 represents the most significant formal legal step India has taken since Operation Sindoor in establishing, before a court of law, the chain of command responsibility for the April 22, 2025 attack.
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