But al Qaeda never released an official martyrdom statement announcing the deaths of Kashmiri or Farooq. And Kashir’s account was immediately called into question when discrepancies in the statement were identified. In addition, a photo that was released with the statement and purported to be that of Kashmiri’s corpse turned out to be instead a photo of a member of the November 2008 Mumbai suicide assault team who was killed during that attack. Also, Farooq has released several propaganda tapes for al Qaeda since his purported death.
One month after the strike, anonymous Pakistani officials told Dawn that they believe Kashmiri is alive, and US and Pakistani intelligence never confirmed his death. Also, Kashmiri’s family said it was never notified by jihadists of his death.
Last year, Indian intelligence officials have stated that they believe Kashmiri faked his death to throw the US off of his trail. US intelligence officials have since told The Long War Journal that they are uncertain of Kashmiri’s status, and said they have not seen definitive proof that he was indeed killed in the June 3, 2011 drone strike.
Kashmiri has been the subject of false death rumors in the past.
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