The Pakistan Army has presented former Pakistani army member Havildar Muhammad Asif, who was claimed to have been killed in clashes in Indian Kashmir, alive to the media.
On Thursday (October 1), the country’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chowdhury presented him at a press conference.
Geo News reported that the ISPR DG claimed that India had created such an incident through another ‘false-flag operation’. The Indian side had claimed that former Pakistani army officer Muhammad Asif was killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
He said the incident began on the night of September 29. That night, the Indian Corps announced on social media that a joint search operation had been conducted in the Koraug, Yusmarg areas and a ‘terrorist’ had been neutralized there.
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About seven hours later, the Indian Army issued another update, claiming that the body of Mohammad Asif alias Hashim Musa, a known member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, had been recovered along with war equipment in the Palmaidan area.
Shortly after, Indian news agency ANI published a detailed report. It claimed that Mohammad Asif was born on March 7, 1980. He joined the Pakistan Army in 2000 with service number PA-3106947 and retired as a Havildar. In 2005, he joined the Special Services Group (SSG) and served in 4 Commando Yalgarh Battalion.
According to the report, he was posted in Balochistan since 2006 and took part in about 10 operations against Baloch insurgents. He was also credited with 13 kills, the report claimed. He also served in the VVIP security team of former President Pervez Musharraf from 2006 to 2009, ANI reported.
The ISPR DG said, “You may be thinking of Uri, Pahalgam and Pulwama – a very interesting story is being made, and now that story has come to fruition.” He then presented the living Muhammad Asif before the media. He said, “This has completely refuted the Indian narrative and brought to light another fabricated incident linking Pakistan to terrorism in IIOJK.”
Standing next to the ISPR Director General at the press conference, Muhammad Asif said that he is a resident of Tehsil Pindigheb in Attock district. He said, “Yesterday, Wednesday evening, my friends called me and told me that news was being spread in the Indian media and social media that the Indian army had killed me in an encounter in Kashmir. They wanted to know where I was. I said, I am alive and well and Alhamdulillah I am sitting at home.”
“Immediately after this, he started receiving multiple calls from unknown Indian numbers. The callers were asking for his personal information and whether he was related to the person mentioned in the news,” Asif said.
“I repeatedly blocked those numbers. After a while, I saw the news on television, showing my picture and personal military record, and claiming that I had been martyred in Kashmir. I was completely shocked. I was sitting at home, and they were claiming that I had been killed in Kashmir,” he said.
Asif said he immediately informed senior officers of his former unit that he was safely at home, so that no misconceptions or allegations would be created about him.
