NIA’s Pahalgam Chargesheet: The anatomy of a proxy war

The recent filing of a 1597-page chargesheet by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) regarding the April 2025 Pahalgam massacre is much more than a routine legal submission. It stands as a calculated and definitive assertion of Indian sovereignty against a decades-old machinery of terror. This document provides an exhaustive forensic roadmap of a conspiracy that was conceived in foreign safe houses and executed in the Baisaran Valley of Kashmir. By meticulously documenting every thread of the attack, the investigators have moved beyond mere rhetoric. They have constructed a fortress of truth that no amount of propaganda can dismantle.

The Forensic Demise of Plausible Deniability

Justice in a modern democracy relies on the undeniable power of scientific proof. The investigation into the April 2025 attack, which saw militants use M4 carbines and AK-47 rifles against innocent tourists, was conducted under the rigorous standards of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam. Investigators did not rely on hearsay but instead tracked the digital and financial trails of handlers like Sajid Saifullah Jatt in Lahore. The evidence recovered is staggering in its specificity. Authorities found laminated voter identity cards from the Election Commission of Pakistan among the terrorists.

They also recovered micro-SD cards containing NADRA biometric records that traced the family trees of the militants to specific residential addresses in Gujranwala in Pakistani Punjab. Even mundane items, such as chocolates found in the possession of the attackers, were traced back to commercial consignments shipped to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, therefore serving as concrete proof of state-sponsored logistics.

Precision Over Collective Punishment

A self-respecting nation demonstrates its strength through the precision of its laws rather than the blunt force of its military. In a region as vast as the Kashmir Valley, which is home to over seventy lakh people, the state charged only two local associates named Parvaiz and Bashir Ahmad Jothar.

This surgical approach in a district like Anantnag, with a population exceeding 12 lakhs, shows how surgically the investigation has been conducted. The Indian state utilised the scalpel of the law to excise only the specific malignant nodes of the terror network. Advanced ballistics analysis further solidified this case by matching cartridges from the Pahalgam crime scene to weapons recovered during Operation Mahadev in the Dachigam forest of Srinagar. Unlike its neighbour, India builds airtight prosecutions in open civilian courts that rely on irrefutable scientific links rather than the coercion of witnesses.

A Legacy of Desertion and Deceit

The context of this investigation is inseparable from a history of proxy conflict dating back to 1947. Pakistan has a long-standing tradition of disowning its own participants. This pattern began with Major General Akbar Khan’s orchestrated invasion in 1947, which he later admitted was a state operation in his memoirs titled Raiders in Kashmir. It continued through the failures of Operation Gibraltar in 1965 and reached a cynical peak in 1999 during the Kargil conflict. The refusal to accept the bodies of Northern Light Infantry soldiers who fell on the peaks of Kargil remains a stain on military history. A state that abandons its own uniformed sons will feel no hesitation in disowning the irregulars it sends to murder civilians. Furthermore, that nation’s selective use of international law is a hollow performance. By refusing to vacate occupied territories for seven decades, it has remained in blatant violation of UNSC Resolution 47 of 1948 and has therefore lost all legal and moral authority to lecture others.

The Ballot as a Plebiscite on Peace

The democratic journey of the region is rooted in the 1954 Constituent Assembly, which formally ratified the Accession to India. This historic act functioned as the original and ultimate plebiscite where the people of Jammu and Kashmir chose their destiny within the Indian Union.  Today, the fruits of that choice are visible in the stability of daily life. The 2024 elections functioned as a thunderous rejection of the culture of violence. Record-breaking turnouts, including a 64 percent average in the Assembly elections, prove that the narrative of separatism has collapsed.

The participation of former separatists and Jamaat-e-Islami affiliates in the democratic process represents the ultimate victory of the Indian constitution. Schools now operate on consistent academic calendars without the threat of shutdowns, markets thrive with hustle and bustle, and cinemas have reopened after three decades to full houses, signalling a society that has moved on from a conflict-driven economy.  While critics lecture India on demographic changes, they ignore the systemic demographic engineering occurring in their own occupied territories, like Gilgit-Baltistan.

The Strength of the Constitutional State

The contrast between two neighbouring nations is a study in institutional integrity. In India, even the most significant policies are subject to legal scrutiny. The 2019 abrogation of Article 370 was upheld by a five-judge bench in 2023, confirming it as a valid constitutional process. Across the border, the constitution is treated as a temporary document.

The 27th Amendment of 2025, which entrenched military supremacy and shielded chiefs from accountability, reveals a garrison State where the law is merely a suggestion. A nation that cannot investigate the disappearance of its own Baloch citizens is in no position to offer forensic help to a democracy. India investigates its crimes with the confidence of a sovereign power that relies on its own agencies instead of seeking assistance like a client state. The Pahalgam chargesheet is not just a document of the past but a declaration that the sovereign will of India is non-negotiable.

The writer is an advocate practicing at High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh at Srinagar. He writes on CI/ CT, internal security, politics and geopolitics; views are personal