Pakistan on Thursday presented a retired Special Services Group (SSG) commando, identified as Mohammad Asif, to the media a day after Indian security forces said they had killed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Mohammad Asif, alias Hashim Moosa, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district.
The move came after India said Moosa was killed during an encounter on Wednesday. Pakistani authorities, however, rejected the claim and said the former SSG soldier identified as Mohammad Asif was alive and had appeared before the media in Rawalpindi.
The man was presented by DG ISPR Lt General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry during a press conference on Thursday. He identified himself as Mohammad Asif and said he had joined the Pakistan Army in 2000. According to his statement, he joined the SSG in 2005, served there for 18 years and retired as a havildar in 2023.
“I am alive and present before you,” he said, while responding to reports that he had been killed in Jammu and Kashmir.
The competing claims have raised questions over the identity of the man killed in the Budgam operation. Indian authorities have identified the deceased as Mohammad Asif, also known as Hashim Moosa or Asif Fauji, and described him as a senior LeT commander. Pakistan has disputed that identification.
Some analysts and OSINT accounts have compared images of the man presented by Pakistan with older photographs attributed to Moosa and pointed to differences in facial features. These comparisons have not been independently verified.
Indian defence experts and former military officials have also questioned Pakistan’s version. Major General Harsha Kakar (retd) and Brigadier Brijesh Pandey were among those who commented publicly on the issue.
WHO WAS MOHAMMAD ASIF, ALIAS HASHIM MOOSA?
According to Indian authorities, Mohammad Asif, alias Hashim Moosa, was a senior LeT commander who had been active in Jammu and Kashmir for several years. He was killed in an intelligence-based joint operation in the Budgam area on September 30, according to the Union Home Ministry.
Indian security agencies have linked Moosa and his group to several attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. He was also identified as the last surviving member of a four-member LeT group that came under attention following the 2025 Pahalgam terror attack. The other members of the group were killed in separate operations, according to Indian authorities.
Indian officials have also said that Moosa was a former trained SSG commando of the Pakistan Army. Reports have linked him to operations in the Pir Panjal region and the Kashmir Valley.
Pakistan, however, has rejected the Indian account and maintained that the Mohammad Asif it presented at the press conference is alive.
The two sides have therefore given conflicting accounts about the identity of the man killed in the Budgam encounter, with further verification of the competing claims still pending.