A retired Pakistani soldier whom Indian reports identified as a militant killed in Kashmir appeared at a press conference in Islamabad.
A man named in Indian reports as a militant killed in Kashmir appeared in person at a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday, raising fresh questions about a disputed security operation in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations, presented retired Havildar Mohammad Asif to the media on October 1. Asif told reporters he was alive and well, and that he had learned through social media that his personal information had been linked to reports about the killing.
The appearance has added a new dimension to an incident that Pakistani and Indian authorities have described in very different ways, particularly regarding who was killed and how the identification was made.
At the center of the matter is a single question: who was the man killed in the Budgam operation on September 29? The answer matters because Indian reports linked the deceased not only to a Pakistani military background but also to one of the deadliest attacks in the region in recent years.
What India Reported About the Budgam Operation
On the night of September 29, the Indian Army’s Chinar Corps posted on social media that a joint search operation had been launched in the Korag-Yousmarg area of Budgam district, and that one militant had been killed. Indian forces said the operation was based on specific intelligence and that an exchange of fire followed.
About seven hours later, the Indian Army said it had recovered the body of a Lashkar-e-Taiba militant, identified as Mohammad Asif alias Hashim Moosa, along with weapons and other material.
Indian news agency ANI, citing sources, then published a detailed profile of the man. It said he was born on March 7, 1980, had been inducted into the Pakistan Army’s Special Services Group in 2005, and had served as a havildar. The reports also said he had been posted in Balochistan and on VVIP security duties before later joining Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The following afternoon, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Press Information Bureau described the deceased as “Musa alias Asif Fauji,” a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba commander. They said the operation was part of a longer-running effort called Operation Sheruwali, launched in May, and Indian outlets reported that a four-member Lashkar-e-Taiba group had been eliminated.
Indian media reports also linked the deceased to the April 22, 2025 attack in Pahalgam, in which 26 people, most of them tourists, were killed. The attack sharply raised tensions between India and Pakistan at the time. Indian media had separately reported in July 2025 that a militant identified as Hashim Musa, also known as Suleman, was killed in a different operation near Srinagar, adding to questions about the identities named in connection with the case.
DG ISPR Presents Mohammad Asif at Islamabad Press Conference
At the press conference, Lt Gen Chaudhry outlined a five-point timeline of how the identification developed, from the first social media post to the official statements that followed. He described the episode as a “so-called terrorist incident” and alleged that it was a false-flag operation by India.
He questioned how the detailed personal information published in Indian reports had been verified, and noted that the same details were later repeated in official Indian communications. He then invited Asif to join him at the briefing.
Asif told reporters he was originally from Attock district and now lives in Rawalpindi. He said he retired from the SSG in 2023 and currently works for a private security company.
“Through ANI on social media, I became aware of the reports that Indian media, using my personal data, had named me as a martyr in an operation in Kashmir,” Asif said, Dawn reported. He added that he had received calls from Indian phone numbers asking about his identity, his whereabouts and his alleged connection to the reports.
“I am very much alive, I live in Rawalpindi, and I am before you,” he told the media.
The Indian Army has maintained that the man killed in the operation was a Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant. No response from Indian authorities to Thursday’s press conference had been reported as of now.
