According to people in the Indian security establishment, one of the accused in the 2019 Pulwama attack, Sameer Ahmad Dar, who was thought to have been killed in a July 31 encounter with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commander Mohammad Ismail Alvi alias Lambu, is alive and bolstering the terror outfit’s activities in the Valley.
It has now been revealed that the second terrorist killed in the July operation alongside Lambu (a relative of JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar) was a Pakistani national who has yet to be identified.
The operation was the result of a coordinated counter-insurgency Victor Force strike in the Nagberan-Tarsar forest area of Pulwama, led by Major General Rashim Bali.
Lambu, a native of Bahawalpur, Pakistan, was killed in the encounter. He was one of the main perpetrators of the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019.
Sameer Dar, a 22-year-old local from Pulwama who joined JeM in 2018, was the other terrorist killed. However, it was later confirmed that the second terrorist was not Dar when security agencies showed his body to his family. According to one of the witnesses, his photos did not match the body when examined more closely.
