Key Pulwama conspirator, though to be killed, is alive, says fresh inte

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, w security agencies later sho his body to the family, it confirmed the second terr was not Dar. On closer exam tion, his photos, too, did match the body, one of the ple said.

“The initial assessment based on the fact that La and Sameer Ahmed Dar al moved together, and Sam Dar’s height was same as the ond terrorist killed that day that body was of an unident Pakistani terrorist,” said a c terterrorism officer who a not to be named.