Key Pulwama conspirator, thought to be killed, is alive, says fresh intel
NEW DELHI: One of the accused in the 2019 Pulwama attack, Sameer Ahmad Dar, who was thought to have been gunned down in a July 31 encounter along with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commander Mohammad Ismail Alvi alias Lambu, is alive and bolstering the terror outfit’s activities in the Valley, according to people in the Indian security establishment.
It has now emerged that the second terrorist killed with Lambu (a relative of JeM chief
Maulana Masood Azhar) in the July operation was a Pakistani national who is yet to be identified, the people cited above told HT.
The operation was the result of a coordinated strike by the counter-insurgency Victor Force, headed by Major General Rashim Bali, in the NagberanTarsar forest area of Pulwama.
Lambu, who is from Bahawalpur, Pakistan, and was one of the main perpetrators of the February 14, 2019 Pulwama attack, was killed in the encounter.
The other terrorist killed was identified as Sameer Dar, 22, a local from Pulwama, who joined
JeM in 2018. However, when security agencies later showed his body to the family, it was confirmed the second terrorist was not Dar. On closer examination, his photos, too, did not match the body, one of the people said.
“The initial assessment was based on the fact that Lambu and Sameer Ahmed Dar always moved together, and Sameer Dar’s height was same as the second terrorist killed that day. But that body was of an unidentified Pakistani terrorist,” said a counterterrorism officer who asked not to be named.
Security forces in Kashmir have new information that Sameer Dar is currently moving around with another Pakistani terrorist, Zahid Tiger, and that they both carry US M-4 assault rifles.
“We believe Sameer Dar is currently trying to regroup Jaish recruits to carry out further terror activities in the valley till Jaish sends Lambu’s replacement from Pakistan because the outfit never appoints locals as its commanders in the valley. The only exception was Noor Mohammad Tantrey alias Noor Trali, killed in an encounter in December 2017,” said a second security establishment officer on condition of anonymity.
Both officers said that Dar is active and dangerous, and is a particular threat because he knows the JeM logistics chain and all the outfit’s recruits in the Valley since 2018.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has already filed a charge sheet against Dar, along with 18 others, including Lambu, Masood Azhar, his nephew Umar Farooq (killed in an encounter in March 2019), and two brothers, Abdul Rouf Asghar and Ammar Alvi.
According to NIA, during the Pulwama attack conspiracy, Dar first helped in arranging the explosives — gelatin sticks from mining blocks and locations used by cement factories for blasting rocks in the areas of Khrew (Pulwama), Khunmoh (Srinagar), Tral, Awantipora and Lethpora — and then assisted Umar Farooq and Lambu in assembling the bomb, which killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel. He also tutored the suicide bomber, Adil Ahmad Dar, on what to say in the video released by JeM after the Pulwama attack as means to claim responsibility.
The attack brought India and Pakistan on the verge of another war as it prompted New Delhi to launch an air strike on a JeM camp deep inside the Pakistani territory in Balakot.
The Pakistani air force carried out a retaliatory attack and captured an Indian pilot before releasing him days later.
This June, Sameer Dar, along with his associates, attacked SPO Fayaz Ahmad in the Hariparigam area of Awantipora, killing him, his wife, and their daughter. On July 24, Sameer and his associates killed another man, Javaid Ahmed Malik at Lurgam Tral. According to officers, he is now operating from south Kashmir.”