NEW DELHI: Shahid Latif, the alleged mastermind and key coordinator of the 2016 terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, was reportedly shot dead by some unknown assailants in Pakistan on Wednesday. Shahid Latif, a Jaish-e-Mohammed-linked terrorist, was reportedly shot dead in a mosque located on the outskirts of Sialkot.
After killing Latif, the attackers immediately fled from the scene on a motorcycle. Local police, which reached the spot in no time, cordoned off the area and launched an investigation into the killing.
Who Was Shahid Latif?
Latif was wanted by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) in an Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case. He was a senior member of the Pakistan-backed terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which took responsibility for the 2016 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot. In January 2016, a heavily armed group attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station.
Latif is believed to have orchestrated the 2016 Pathankot terror attack and hatched the entire plot from Sialkot. He even sent down the four dreaded JeM terrorists to Pathankot to execute the attack. In 1994, Latif was arrested from Jammu in a case related to narcotics and terrorism. He was deported back to Pakistan via the Wagah border in 2010 after serving a 16-year-long jail term.
He was listed as a terrorist by the Indian government after the NIA said in its probe that Latif went back to the Jihadi factory in Pakistan after his release in 2010.
Importantly, Shahid Latif was one of those whose release was demanded by the terrorists who hijacked the Indian Airlines plane IC814 in 1999 and took it to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Masood Azhar, however, was one of the prisoners freed along with two others in lieu of 189 passengers and crew members caught in a hostage situation on the plane.
