Shahid Latif, key conspirator of Pathankot terror attack, killed in Pakistan

Mangalore Today News Network / NDTV

New Delhi, Oct 11, 2023: Shahid Latif, one of India’s most wanted terrorists, was today shot dead by unknown gunmen in Pakistan’s Sialkot. Latif was a key conspirator in the 2016 Pathankot terror attack in which 7 security personnel were killed.

 

Police said that Latif was killed inside a mosque and they are still trying to identify the attackers. Another Jaish terrorist was killed in the attack. The gunmen fled the scene on a motorcycle and cops have launched a probe into the killing.

He had been working as a Maulvi in Sialkot’s Noot Masjid.

Latif, associated with the Jaish-e-Mohammed, had from Sialkot guided the 4 terrorists who carried out the terror attack at the Pathankot airbase. Seven Indian Air Force personnel were killed when four JeM terrorists sneaked into the Pathankot Air Force Station on January 2, 2016. The encounter went on for three days.

He had been arrested in India in 1994 on terror charges. He was then put on trial and eventually jailed. He completed his sentence in 2010, after which he was deported to Pakistan via the Wagah border.

The 41-year-old terrorist was also an accused in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999 and had been listed as a wanted terrorist by the Indian government in 2010.

Latif’s killing is the latest in a series of attacks on terrorists in Pakistan. Last month, Mufti Qaisar Farooq and Ziaur-Rehman of Lashkar was killed in Karachi.

In February, top Hizbul commander Bashir Ahmad Peer was killed in Rawalpindi.

There are several other terrorist operatives who have been killed in Pakistan in the last 18 months.