There had been some speculation even earlier, which had persisted, that reports of Ilyas Kashmiri's death were wildly exaggerated. And those rumours about his being alive also refuse to die down. The latest is Pakistan's Dawn which has a report quoting unnamed sources that he is still alive

Sources revealed that Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, the commander of Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), who was reportedly killed in a US drone attack in South Waziristan last month, is still alive, DawnNews reported.

Sources said that security officials of the United States and Pakistan failed to confirm the death of the HuJI commander.

He is still active in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, sources added.

Regional and anti-terrorism experts have long described Kashmiri as one of Al Qaeda’s main operational commanders.

Kashmiri was held responsible for a number of attacks in Pakistan, including the May 22 siege on the Navy’s air base in Karachi and in October 2009 on the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.