Sameer, an A++ category militant, came from a very humble background. His father Mohammad Maqbool Bhat is a manual worker and his younger brother works as a mechanic. While several families in the village are affluent and own apple orchards, Bhat’s family has only a few acres of land.

A chronic stonepelter, Sameer was a Class VIII dropout. He reportedly got the “honorific” Tiger as he would remain at the forefront of angry demonstrators who would clash with the security forces and pelt them with stones during pro-freedom protests.

Sameer, according to local police, was arrested in 2016 on charges of stonepelting, only to be released a few days later. He was then counselled by police for nearly two weeks and let off with a condition that he would continue with his studies.

Instead, one day, not very long after, his parents approached the Drabgam police station and registered a missing report about their son, officials recounted. He had fled into the jungles of adjoining Tral and joined the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group besides extending help to other terror outfits.

According to senior police officials, he persuaded about 80 people to join the militancy movement in South Kashmir and repeatedly managed to escape the police dragnet -- until now.

Sameer in fact had become the face of the militant outfit after the death of Burhan Wani. He largely remained active in two districts of Southern Kashmir—Shopian and Pulwama. After Burhan Wani's death, videos of a bearded, long-haired Sameer appeared on various social networking sites in a bid to entice Kashmiri youths to join militancy.

Allegedly, he carried out several political and civilian killings besides he is also accused of abducting small time political workers and police informers, torturing them and recording their agony.

Sameer would frequently post his videos and photographs on the social networking sites. In one of the videos released in 2017, he can be seen interrogating a few local youths allegedly masquerading as militants. Subsequently, one of Sameer’s photographs, which showed him fiercely staring into camera with an American M-4 carbine placed on right shoulder, had gone viral on the social media. It raised hackles among security forces over militants possessing sophisticated American weapons in Kashmir Valley.

“We were left dumbfounded to see such sophisticated weapons falling in the hands of militants. Even our men fighting insurgency are not armed with this kind of weaponry” said a police officer on the conditions of anonymity.

About a month ago, a video emerged on the Facebook that showed Sameer imparting arms-training to the new recruits. A few days later, he was blamed by security forces for the killing of senior political leader Ghulam Nabi Patel.

On Camera Encounter footage of 44 Rastriya rifles killing Sameer Tiger(a terrorist who was behind torture,kidnapping of indian jawans).He reportedly challenged indian army on camera and the irony is he was 72ed in less then 24 hours.(Viewer Discretion Advised)