New Delhi, Aug. 28 -- Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday met and felicitated personnel of Indian Army, CRPF, and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police who were part of Operation Mahadev - the joint counterterror operation against the perpetrators of April 22 Pahalgam attack. Under Operation Mahadev, three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists - Suleman, Afghan, and Jibran - were neutralised by security forces in Kashmir on July 28. "Proud to have felicitated our valorous security personnel, who successfully carried out 'Operation Mahadev' and eliminated the perpetrators of Pahalgam terror attack," Shah said on X. While speaking to the security forces, Shah emphasised that Operations Sindoor and Mahadev had conveyed to the masterminds of terror about the consequences of playing with the lives of Indian citizens. He added that when tourism in Kashmir was at its peak, terrorists made unsuccessful attempts to derail the government's Kashmir mission. "The forces have shown to the world that no matter how much terrorists change their strategy and methods, they can no longer harm India. The J&K police stand at the forefront with the army and paramilitary forces in the fight against terror," an official privy to the details, requesting anonymity, quoted Shah as saying. For almost 22 days, the personnel involved in the Operation Mahadev last month had chased the terrorists through difficult terrain, surviving on food that was sent to them via drones. During the felicitation ceremony on Wednesday, the men also shared their experiences with Shah, home secretary Govind Mohan, and Intelligence Bureau director Tapan Deka. The home minister reiterated how the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) had established that the terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev were indeed the ones that had carried out the Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 lives. On July 30, during a special discussion on Operation Sindoor - India's military action against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK - in the Lok Sabha, Shah had confirmed that the three neutralised terrorists from proscribes LeT outfit were behind the attack. The home minister had said in the discussion that three rifles were recovered from the terrorists-one 19 M4 carbine and two AK-47s. "After the Pahalgam attack, NIA had recovered emptied cartridges from the Baisaran (Pahalgam) valley, and those were examined in the Forensic Science Lab. When these terrorists were killed, the rifles recovered from them were tested, and after forensic matching, it was found with 100% certainty that these three rifles were used in the Pahalgam attack. It was also found that 44 of these cartridges were of 19 M4 carbines and 25 cartridges were of AK-47 rifles," he had told the Lok Sabha....