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Pahalgam terror attack in 2025. 9/11 in 2001 in New York. Two attacks, two decades apart, separated by continents. But according to reports citing India's terror probe, one Pakistani bank appears in the evidence trail of both. What started with a phone recovered from a dead terrorist in a Kashmir forest has now led to a name that once appeared in America's post-9/11 investigations. India's National Investigation Agency has been running one of the most consequential terror probes since the April 22nd Pahalgam attack. The terror attack that killed 26 civilians and triggered Operation Sindoor in 2025. And buried in the evidence trail is a
striking detail. A phone. According to reports citing the NIA investigation, two Xiaomi Redmi phones were recovered from terrorists Fazal Bhatt, Habib Taher, and Hamza Afghani, who were killed in Dachigam forest on July 28th, 2025. Using Xiaomi records, investigators traced the devices back to their import history. One device, an orange Redmi 90, reportedly stood out. According to the probe, the phone was imported into Pakistan on January 1st, 2021. And investigators found something unusual. Turns out, the device had allegedly never been switched on from the time it entered Pakistan until the day of the Pahalgam attack. A dormant phone. Four years without activation. Then, according to investigators, operational use.
So, where did the device come from? According to records reviewed during the investigation, the shipment was imported by Tech Siraj Private Limited, a Karachi-based company. But the paper trail extended beyond the importer. Reports say the financing tied to the consignment led to Faisal Bank Limited. And the delivery address listed in the shipment documentation, it was Faisal House main branch, Shahrah-e-Faisal, Karachi, the official address of Faisal Bank. An officer quoted in reports said investigators believe the phone appears to have been siphoned from the shipment and eventually reached Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives. That finding, according to the probe, transforms an ordinary import document
into a potential operational link. A financed consignment, a phone from that consignment, and years later, that device was used in the Pahalgam terror attack. So, what exactly is the Faisal Bank? It began as a subsidiary of Faisal Islamic Bank, a Bahraini institution owned by Muhammad bin Faisal Al Saud, a son of the late Saudi King Faisal. Incorporated in Pakistan in October 1994, it has since grown into a mainstream commercial giant listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, operating across more than 360 cities nationwide. On paper, a perfectly respectable financial institution. But, off paper, quite a different story. Because this is not the first time Faisal Bank has turned up in a terror investigation.
Following the September 11 attacks, lawsuits filed in American courts made a startling claim. Two Pakistani extremist groups, both designated terror organizations by the United States, were found to have maintained deposit accounts at Faisal Bank Limited. One of them was Lashkar-e-Taiba, the very same organization now linked to Pahalgam. The other was Lajnat al-Dawa, a Kuwait-based foundation with documented ties to Al-Qaeda. And a 2002 report by Pakistan's own Dawn newspaper confirmed that the Federal Investigation Agency had found multiple proscribed terror groups holding accounts across several Pakistani banks. Faisal Bank being among them. So, let's be precise about what we are saying.
A bank whose name appeared in Al-Qaeda linked account records after 9/11 is now linked through a direct financing trail to a phone used in the Pulwama terror attack. This is not a coincidence. This is a pattern. And in Pakistan, patterns like this don't survive for decades by accident. They survive because the system, the deep state, the ISI, the financial architecture allows them to. And the phone is just one strand of what the NIA has now laid out in its charge sheet. Pakistan has long presented itself to the world as a victim of terrorism. But the evidence trail that began in a Kashmir forest ends, once again, in Karachi.
The world moves fast. Power shifts. Unexpected developments. Changing alliances. Every day brings a new headline. But headlines are only the beginning. Because behind every story, there is context. There are consequences, and there are questions worth asking. Find the answers. Understand the story. Take on the world. This is Himcorsaroya for Firstpost Vantage.
