AMN/ WEB DESK
Pathankot airbase attack mastermind Shahid Latif was killed by unidentified persons in Pakistan’s Sialkot today. He was one of the key conspirators in the 2016 Pathankot Air Force base terrorist attack and one of India’s most wanted terrorists.
Three gunmen on a motorcycle shot Latif and two of his associates near the Noor Madina Mosque in Punjab’s Daska after the Fajr prayer. Two of them died on the spot, while one was injured. He had been working as a Maulvi in the Masjid. Latif was designated an “individual terrorist” under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by India. He had been living in Sialkot for a long and was involved in several terror strikes in India. He was accused of the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999.
Latif was the handler of four Pakistani 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. They were neutralized by National Security Guards and the Army commandoes in an 80-hour long ‘Operation Dhangu’.
Latif 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.