iPad digitizer is GLUED to lcd? Bought outside the US?

It's really funny that you posted this, I ran into this exact thing yesterday on an iPad 2. Don't worry, you are in fact working on a regular iPad 2. The way the digitizer broke, it made visible the fact that the digitizer assembly is actually two pieces of glass fused together. The bottom one is smaller and is the exact size of the window left by the border paint on the top piece. If the digitizer breaks just right, it looks like the bottom is the LCD because you can see the glue that held the two pieces of glass together beginning to run and seperate, just as it would in a fused lcd. Trust me, keep removing the digitizer the same way you usually do. I promise you will find that it was just an optical illusion and the regular lcd is underneath it all with no glue on it

Is it the iPad Air 2? Then yes the digitizer is fused with the LCD. If its the older ipad 2 then I would say it's a bad attempt at a previous repair.

Possibility of a knock off? But I doubt the knock offs would be adhered to the actual lcd.

You sure.you haven't actually gone between the glass/digitiser layers?

Having seen quite a lot of Ipad with broken touch screen I can say that I don't see anything unusual there.(or mayby I'm tired now!). No trace of any glue holding together the touch screen and the LCD.

What I can say is that it's a real Ipad 2 screen (I recognize in the first photo in the "hole" the good quality yellow metal connectors used for both touch screen and LCD. It's cheaper but lower quality connectors for Ipad 3 or 4).

What is interesting is that the corner near the impact point seems in good condition. Possibly , the Ipad was protected in a dedicated case when it felt down!

Removing a broken touch screen is really a matter of patience! Apple uses a very efficient double sided black tape and it is better to have a hot air solder unit . Even like this you can spend 45 minutes if not 1 hour as you must be careful not to cut any connector ribbon nor to break the LCD. (the only connector you can cut without any problem is the touch screen one ;) )

And after having being removed the broken touch screen you will have to clean the case in order to prepare to put a new touch screen (removing very small parts of the former touch screen, some double sided tap pieces, and some glue left by the tap on the case) . Don’t forget to remove before the LCD unit and to put it in a safe location (and protected from dust)

“Bon courage”