In the Pakistani city of Sialkot, unknown gunmen have shot and killed the mastermind of the 2016 Pathankot terrorist attack, Shahid Latif. The Pathankot terrorist attack occurred in January 2016 when a group of heavily armed militants infiltrated the Pathankot Air Force Station, an Indian military base located in the town of Pathankot in the northern state of Punjab. The attack was attributed to the Pakistan-based terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which has been accused of having links to elements within the Pakistani establishment.
Latif was one of India’s most wanted terrorists and was sought by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a UAPA case. It is also important to note that in the mid-1990s, Shahid Latif was arrested by India, only to be later released and deported by the Congress government in 2010 in an effort to improve ties with Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
The NIA had filed a chargesheet in the Pathankot terror case and had identified four masterminds behind the attack, with Shahid Latif at the top of that list. “He had motivated and sent down the four JeM terrorists to Pathankot. While in Pakistan, Latif also coordinated with them before and during the terror attack,” the NIA said.
According to available information, Shahid Latif had been imprisoned in India for 11 years for terrorist crimes, and he was one of the 25 terrorists from various groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, and JeM, who were released on May 28, 2010, as part of the then-UPA government’s diplomatic outreach to the hostile neighbor.
On December 24, 1999, Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 was hijacked en route from Kathmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi, India. The flight was an Airbus A300 with 178 passengers and 11 crew members on board. This incident led to the release of JeM founder Maulana Masood Azhar, along with two other prisoners, in exchange for 154 passengers.
BREAKING: ‘Unknown assailants’ kill India-wanted Jaish terrorist Shahid Latif in Sialkot, Pakistan. Was mastermind of the Pathankot terror attack. Newsbreak by @arvindojha. pic.twitter.com/uGb1yvLETT
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) October 11, 2023
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