GoPro trail in Pahalgam terror attack leads to Chinese city, court allows NIA to seek Beijing help

JAMMU: Fifteen months before Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed 25 tourists and a Kashmiri pony handler at Baisaran in J&K's Pahalgam on April 22 last year, a GoPro action camera now in NIA custody as a "crucial" piece of reconnaissance evidence was first activated in China's Dongguan, investigators told a Jammu court this week.

The special court allowed Monday NIA's plea for a "letter rogatory" – legalese for a formal request from one country to another for judicial assistance – to be sent to the Chinese govt through the ministry of external affairs to help trace who bought the device and how it ended up in the hands of a terror module operating in J&K.




The home ministry has already cleared the request submitted by NIA DIG Sandeep Choudhary.

The GoPro Hero 12 Black camera, bearing serial number C3501325471706, is among several electronic devices and other items seized during the investigation into the terrorist attack targeting tourists in one of J&K's more popular destinations.

NIA told the special judge that finding out who procured and activated the camera in China was integral to establishing pre-attack reconnaissance, movement patterns and operational preparedness of the Pakistan-backed terrorists.

The agency previously issued notice to manufacturer GoPro BV, seeking details of the specific camera's distribution chain and activation.

GoPro's response revealed that the camera was supplied to AE Group International Ltd, a distributor based in China, and activated in Dongguan – an industrial hub in central Guangdong province – on Jan 30, 2024. The manufacturer informed NIA that it didn't hold downstream transaction records or end-user details, making Chinese authorities the only route to identifying the buyer.

Since India and China don't have a bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty, the request will be routed through the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, which both countries have ratified.

The court acknowledged that the information sought by NIA was "very important in establishing the chain of custody, user attribution and evidentiary linkage of the camera to the wider conspiracy". It directed the investigating officer to upload the request with Chinese translations on the mutual legal assistance portal and send copies through CBI's international police cooperation unit in Delhi for forwarding to China through diplomatic channels.
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