A similar technique was used by the anti-terror agency during the 2019 Pulwama attack as well.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday revisited the Baisaran meadow for three-dimensional, or 3D, mapping of the site based on the statements of witnesses, officials familiar with the development said.
A similar technique was used by the anti-terror agency during the 2019 Pulwama attack as well to reconstruct the scene and to understand the duration, exact location, and routes taken by the terrorists involved. Last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also used 3D-mapping of the crime scene in the RG Kar hospital rape case to track the movement of the main accused Sanjay Roy.
“A NIA team, armed with the testimonies of the family members of those killed present at Baisaran on April 22, the pony operators, vendors and other workers there, as well as technical data like satellite imagery, video footage of the meadow shot by the investigation team, visited the site on Wednesday for 3D mapping,” an officer who asked not to be named said :.
This officer stressed that “the 3D mapping will provide accurate, graphic-rich visualization of the attack site, which can be used while questioning hundreds of people without bringing them to the site and understand the exact location of everyone who was present that day, entry and exit points of the terrorists, and the radius in which the killings took place”.
It will also be crucial to put evidence into context before the courts at a later stage, he added.
Officials said that the NIA probe team was accompanied by forensic experts during their visit to the meadow.
Sharing details of the use of 3D mapping in its probe of the Pulwama attack, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers were killed by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists, a second officer said: “The route taken by Maulana Masood Azhar’s nephew Umar Farooq, suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar, and places from where the terrorists collected gelatin sticks, ammonium nitrate, ammonium powder and RDX were mapped.”
A team led by an inspector general rank officer is currently stationed in Pahalgam and has questioned dozens of individuals,including overground workers of terror outfits, as well as pony guides, vendors, photographers and those employed in adventure sports activities to gather clues on the dastardly terror strike, in which 26 tourists have been killed.
While information suggests that four to five terrorists were involved in the killings, sketches of three terrorists –two Pakistanis, Ali Bhai alias Talha Bhai and Hashim Musa alias Suleiman — and a local operative Adil Hussain Thoker have been released as of now and they are being hunted by security forces.