New Delhi: 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 seven 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, 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 Sialkot's Noot Masjid. A senior police officer, Hassan Iqbal, said that they have launched an investigation to find and catch the attackers.
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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 was 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.