Wanted JeM Terrorist Shahid Latif Shot Dead in Pakistan
NEW DELHI, Oct 11: Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Shahid Latif, one of India’s most wanted terrorists, along with his two other associates were shot dead by unknown gunmen in a mosque in Daska town of Pakistan’s Sialkot district on Wednesday.
Believed to be the mastermind of the 2016 attack on an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in which seven IAF personnel were killed, Latif alias Bilal, a designated terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, is learnt to have been shot dead along with two of his associates by three gunmen.
Police said Latif was killed inside a mosque and they are still trying to identify the attackers. Two other Jaish terrorist were also killed in the attack, which the police have listed as a terror incident. The gunmen fled the scene on a motorcycle and cops have launched a probe into the killing.
Latif had been working as a Maulvi in the Noot Masjid. A senior police officer, Hassan Iqbal, said they have launched an investigation to find and catch the attackers.
Latif had infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley in 1993 and was arrested a year later. He was in Jammu jail with Masood Azhar, founder of the JeM, till 2010 before he was deported to Pakistan following his release and formally joined the terror group, they said. “This is the biggest blow to JeM on Pakistan soil,” an official said.
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 and the same year the 41-year old was listed as a wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
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 were 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.
(Manas Dasgupta)
