How do you track a fugitive in a forest where radio waves disappear and each tree seems to conspire to conceal a signal? Indian security forces were asking themselves this question for months following the Pahalgam massacre as they pursued three Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives Suleman Shah, Abu Hamza, and Yasir Jibran through the Dachigam–Harwan jungle. The group’s breakout was not simply a challenge of endurance, but a battle of technical cleverness: both sides had advanced tools at their disposal in a world that outwitted most traditional surveillance.
The choice of the terrorists to abandon ordinary mobile phones for a Huawei satellite phone connected to the Inmarsat4 F1 system was a deliberate action. This technology allowed them to send encrypted messages straight into handlers in Pakistan, bypassing Indian telecommunication infrastructure altogether. But even the most sophisticated satellite phone can’t escape discovery. The Inmarsat4 F1 network, which sits in the L-band, has worldwide coverage, but its signals have to filter through dense forest canopies an environment infamous for absorbing and diffusing electromagnetic waves. As a recent review summarizes it, RF signals lose tens of decibels per meter due to dense foliage, high levels of moisture, and topography; this loss is even greater at frequencies above 1 GHz. The folding of the region into deep valleys and ridgelines further compounded the attenuation, creating, as one intelligence official put it, “natural blind spots that absorbed and deflected signals,”
But the faint, intermittent pings from the satellite phone proved a first thread in a painstaking technical pursuit. Three technical surveillance devices, advanced radio frequency devices; each is designed to sniff out the weakest radio frequencies of so-called “signal-shadow zones.” These devices are probably using wideband receivers and high-gain directional antennas placed on elevated ground for maximum line-of-sight and any fleeting transmission. As explained in empirical and hybrid models of RF propagation through forests, the efficacy of such detection is a function of both the frequency band and the dielectric characteristics of the vegetation parameters that fluctuate with weather, season, and even leaf water content.
Triangulation was the next important step. By recording the same satellite phone burst from a variety of points, signal units were able to estimate where the device was located even with the jungle’s erratic signal paths. Triangulation from multiple elevated positions gradually narrowed the suspected hideout area to just six square kilometres, a high-ranking source described. This technique, however, is error-prone in forests, where multipath propagation bouncing and scattering of signals off the leaves, trunks, and ground can skew timing and angle-of-arrival measurements. In an effort to overcome this, teams used a mix of local RF scanners and enhanced ground-based gear, cross-checking signal data with HUMINT to create a probabilistic map of the fugitives’ paths.
The technical chess game did not stop with radio monitoring, however. Under their clothes, the investigators discovered three Motorola Android phones with the Alpine Quest offline navigation app loaded. Outdoor professionals revere this software because it grants them the use of detailed topographic maps without needing cellular data or even an active GPS signal essential in an area where both are spotty. The application helped the militants navigate unexplored jungle areas, eschew patrols, and keep track of security force outposts’ locations. “On the slain terrorists’ bodies were found three Motorola Android devices with the Alpine Quest navigation app installed an offline app that provides access to detailed topographic maps,” confirmed a high-ranking official. It was later discovered through intelligence that Alpine Quest also used to monitor and evade security patrol areas, giving the fugitives tactical advantage in their pursuit of evasion.
The success of the pursuit ultimately depended on the fusion of cutting-edge technology and boots-on-the-ground know-how. After the satellite phone’s location had been zeroed in on, the 24 Rashtriya Rifals and 4 PARA executed a final assault, with last-mile human intelligence assets verifying the terrorists’ hideouts and movement patterns. The cordon was closed within 36 hours of actionable intelligence. On July 28, after the last satellite phone ping, a brief but decisive firefight ended the manhunt. Among the items recovered ropes, steel cups, wire cutters, a camphor-like inflammable substance were the very devices that had both shielded and betrayed the militants.
The operation highlighted a key lesson for security professionals: in an era of encrypted communications and offline mapping, the forest is no longer an impenetrable sanctuary. Any device, no matter how advanced, has a technical fingerprint. And in the cat-and-mouse game between concealment and detection, the art of RF propagation, signal intercept, and geolocation is still both the challenge and the key to success.
