section_path: Investigations and arrests/Indian investigations
section_name: Indian investigations
paragraph_text: Indian investigations
  
  India's National Investigation Agency initiated an investigation into the attack after visiting the site on 23 April. Based on eyewitness testimonies, the Jammu and Kashmir Police released sketches of three of the militants believed to have been involved in the attack. The police stated that all of them were linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and at least two are foreigners. Police confirmed that all of them have been linked to previous militancy-related incidents in the Poonch region. Following the attack, hundreds of former overground workers and ex-militants were interrogated in Kashmir.
  
  Indian authorities have linked the Pahalgam attack to Pakistan, with digital traces leading to safe houses in Muzaffarabad and Karachi. They concluded that forensic evidence and intelligence intercepts suggest potential support from operatives based in Pakistan. Authorities conducted extensive searches in Indian-administered Kashmir, questioning more than 2,800 people and taking more than 150 into custody. They also demolished the houses of the families of at least 10 suspected militants. In a report issued following its investigation, the NIA concluded that the attack was committed under directives issued by senior operatives of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
  
  On 26 April, a new first information report (FIR) was registered by the central anti-terrorism agency, following an order from the counter terrorism and counter radicalisation (CTCR) division of the ministry of home affairs.
  
  Independently, investigative journalists from ThePrint found that the demand for the high-resolution satellite imagery of Pahalgam area surged at Maxar two months before the Pahalgam attack. The period of the surge coincided with the joining of a Pakistani geospatial firm, Business Systems International (BSI), as a 'partner' with Maxar. The firm's owner Obaidullah Syed was previously convicted for illegally exporting computer equipment and software to Pakistani government agencies.