Adil Dar: Pulwama suicide bomber was a cricket freak and a Dhoni fan

“He would rise to cheer every time Dhoni hit the ball across the boundary,” recalls the father of the 21-year old suicide bomber who drove an explosive-laden car on Thursday at a CRPF convoy. Jaish-e-Mohammad bomber Adil Ahamd Dar who carried out the deadliest attack in three decades was apparently a die-hard fan of the former Indian cricket captain.

"He was very perturbed when India lost the Champion's Trophy to Pakistan in 2017. He did not come out of his home for many days, fearing humiliation by some of his friends who supported the Pakistani cricket team,” confirms one of his childhood friends.

The 21-year-old Dar, a resident of Gundibagh, a dusty farming village in south Kashmir's militancy-infested district was a class 12 drop out.

A family member who did not wish to be named recalled that Dar along with his two cousins left their village last year. “ While one of the cousins returned home, Adil and another cousin joined the ranks of militants, it appears,” he said. The information was collected through social media. "Since then we have had no contact with them" the family member said.

Sitting cross-legged inside one of the rooms of his two storyed house, Ghulam Hassan Dar told National Herald that his son would never take part in protests marked by stone pelting. He, however, said that his son was harassed by government forces in 2016 which had unsettled him for quite some time. Members of the uniformed force, the father is not clear about their identity, had forced the teenager to keep walking round an armoured vehicle in public view by way of ‘punishment’.

"I had argued with him then that these incidents were of little significance and he should not take them to heart" recalled the father. He also pointed out that before he signed up to work for the militant outfit Jaish-e-Mahammad, he had never been arrested or detained even once by the police or any other security agency.

Adil was second among his three brothers and, according to his father, he would do numerous jobs to help his family. "He knew horticulture related jobs and worked as a mason and painter. He would also help his mother doing the family chores".

Senior Dar lamented that the unresolved Kashmir issue drew his son towards militancy. "Violence does no good to people. Whosoever gets killed, ultimately it is human blood that is spilled" he said.

Last year in May, the family had alleged that security forces had attempted to torch their house in the darkness of the night.