GoPro traces in Pahalgam terror attack lead to Chinese city, court allows NIA to seek help from Beijing
Lashkar-e-Taiba Investigators who killed 25 tourists and a Kashmiri pony trainer at Baisaran in J&K’s Pahalgam on April 22 last year told a Jammu court this week that a GoPro action camera currently in NIA custody was first launched in Dongguan, China, as “vital” reconnaissance evidence.The special court on Monday allowed the NIA’s request to send a “letter rogatory” (a legal term for a country’s formal request for mutual legal assistance from another country) to the Chinese government through the Ministry of External Affairs to help trace who purchased the device and how it ended up in the hands of J&K-affiliated terrorists.The home ministry has approved the request submitted by NIA DIG Sandeep Choudhary.The GoPro Hero 12 Black camera with serial number C3501325471706 was one of several electronic devices and other items seized during the investigation into a terrorist attack on tourists in one of the more popular destinations in J&K.The NIA told the special judge that finding out who procured and activated the cameras in China was crucial to establishing pre-attack reconnaissance, operational patterns and operational preparations by Pakistan-backed terrorists.The agency previously sent a notice to manufacturer GoPro BV, seeking details of the distribution chain and activation of specific cameras.GoPro’s response revealed that the camera was supplied to Chinese distributor AE Group International Ltd and launched on January 30, 2024 in Dongguan, an industrial hub in central Guangdong province. The manufacturer told the NIA that it had no records of downstream transactions or end-user details, leaving Chinese authorities the only way to identify the buyers.Since India and China do not have a bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty, the request will be made through the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which has been ratified by both countries.The court acknowledged that the information sought by the NIA was “significant in establishing the chain of custody, attribution of users, and evidentiary linkage of the cameras to the broader conspiracy.” It directed the investigating officer to upload the request with Chinese translation on the mutual legal assistance portal and send a copy through the CBI’s International Police Cooperation Wing in Delhi for forwarding to China through diplomatic channels.
