In another incident of mysterious killings of Jihadi terrorists in Pakistan, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist Shahid Latif has been killed by unidentified gunmen in Sialkot, Pakistan. He was the mastermind of the 2016 Pathankot terrorist attack and a handler of the JeM. Latif was India’s most wanted terrorist and was wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a UAPA case.
Reports said citing intelligence sources that Latif was shot by unknown gunmen in Sialkot on Wednesday morning (11 October). Local media reported that Latif was shot at point-blank range by shooters who were aware of the local topography. This suggests that local terrorists killed the JeM terrorists.
The terrorist had planned several target-killing attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, including the Pathankot attack on January 2, 2016. He stayed in Sialkot and sent terrorists to India to execute the terror attacks.
Pathankot attack mastermind, Shahid Latif, killed by unidentified gunmen in Pak#ITVideo #Pathankot #ShahidLatif | @SnehaMordani @arvindojha pic.twitter.com/tHjJy5SlIS
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) October 11, 2023
Latif was associated with the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and handled the primary commanding operations of the organization. He was involved in the planning of several terrorist attacks launched by JeM on India. He was also declared a proclaimed offender by the Indian government and was wanted by the NIA in a UAPA case.
It is to be noted that the NIA had filed a chargesheet in the Pathankot terror case and had identified four masterminds behind the attack, one of whom was Shahid Latif. “He had motivated and sent down the four JeM terrorists to Pathankot. Sitting in Pakistan, Latif also coordinated with them before and during the terror attack,” the NIA said.
Shahid Latif was arrested on terror accusations in India in 1993. He was tried and imprisoned. However, he was released by the Congress-led UPA govt in 2010, along with 24 other terrorists. According to an NIA investigation, Shahid Latif returned to the Jihadi factory in Pakistan after he was released and allowed to go to Pakistan.
It is also interesting to note that Shahid Latif, the primary handler of the terrorist team that attacked the Pathankot airbase in January in the year 2016, was released by India in 2010 as part of the Manmohan Singh government’s effort to mend ties with Pakistan.
Latif, 47, had been imprisoned in India for 11 years for terrorist crimes. He was one of 25 terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, and JeM who were released on May 28, 2010, as part of the then-UPA government’s outreach activity to the hostile neighbor. They were imprisoned in Jammu, Srinagar, Agra, Varanasi, Naini (UP), and Tihar before being deported to Pakistan via Wagah.
Earlier, the same Jaish terrorists who hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to obtain the liberation of their leader, terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar, along with two other prisoners in return for 154 passengers in December 1999, had demanded the release of Latif. Latif and the other 31 people on Jaish’s “wish list” were not, however, released by the Vajpayee administration at the time.
The terrorist was released by the UPA government in the year 2010 as a ‘goodwill gesture’. He has now been killed by unknown assailants in Sialkot, Pakistan.
