NEW DELHI: It was possibly the smallest cargo that a special plane, requisitioned at short notice, may have carried, but it ended up solving one of the most crucial terror investigations of the time.

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After three terrorists were killed in ‘Operation Mahadev’ on Monday, the security establishment did not stop at simply getting them identified by family members of the two locals who had provided them food and shelter at their seasonal ‘dhok (hut)’ near Baisaran, a day before the Pahalgam attack.

Amit Shah directed the adoption of a more scientific route – a ballistic test at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, to match the weapons recovered from the slain terrorists with the cartridge casings recovered from the Pahalgam attack site.

The latter had been tested earlier at the same lab.

The weapons – an M-4 carbine and two AK-47s – were flown from Srinagar to Chandigarh on the special plane on Monday-Tuesday night. Forensic/ballistic experts at CFSL burnt the midnight oil, conducting test firings and generating empty shells for comparison. “The grooves and the markings from the barrels and shells matched perfectly… Six forensic experts confirmed to me on video call at 4.46am on Tuesday that these were the same rifles used in killing our innocent citizens (in Pahalgam),” Shah shared in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.