Ganderbal Attack Update: Local Lashkar-e-Taiba Terrorist Identified as Prime Suspect; CCTV Shows Kulgam Youth Opening Fire

A 25-year-old local militant from Kashmir’s Kulgam district, affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, is suspected to be one of the perpetrators in the 20 October terrorist attack that claimed the lives of seven employees of a construction firm in Ganderbal, central intelligence sources reveal.

Reports indicate that the suspect, who went missing from his home in July 2023, was identified after security agencies reviewed CCTV footage that showed the attackers entering the workers’ camp. 

In the footage, two men were seen carrying an American-made M4 carbine assault rifle and an AK-47, spending approximately seven minutes in the camp before fleeing.

Police sources in Kashmir, including those familiar with the incident, affirmed that one of the assailants bears a resemblance to a known local militant from Kulgam.

“We retrieved CCTV footage of the incident and shared it with our sister agencies. One of the two attackers looks like a local militant from south Kashmir,” said a senior officer to The Indian Express.

Further, sources confirm that after the suspect disappeared in mid-2023, he joined The Resistance Front, regarded by law enforcement as a proxy group of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

He is said to hold a Bachelor of Arts degree and was previously employed as a truck driver. His family, with no prior ties to militant activities, has been cooperating with police inquiries, though they remain unaware of his current location.

On 20 October, seven men — six from outside Kashmir and a local doctor — were killed in the attack. The victims were employees of APCO Infratech, a company engaged in constructing the Z-Morh tunnel along the Srinagar-Sonamarg highway.

“After the incident, multiple agencies, including officials of the National Investigation Agency, visited the crime scene. They found CCTV footage of the incident, which shows the attack took place around 7.25 pm when some employees were sitting in the dining area and others were heading for dinner. The camp is just below an approach road to the tunnel and is surrounded by barren mountains on one side and the Srinagar-Leh national highway on the other,” an official reported to the Indian Express.

Jammu and Kashmir has seen a series of attacks in the past week, after the much-anticipated results of the assembly elections.

On 28 October, terrorists launched an attack on an Indian Army ambulance in Jammu and Kashmir’s Battal area near Akhnoor.

On 24 October evening, a terror attack targeted an Army vehicle just a few kilometers from the tourist hotspot of Baramulla district, killing two Army personnel and two civilian porters.

Also Read: Army Vehicles Targeted In Fresh Terror Attack In Jammu-Kashmir's Akhnoor, CM Omar Abdullah Warns Pakistan