NEW DELHI: Shahid Latif, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist and the leader of the fidayeen squad that attacked the Pathankot airbase in 2016, was shot and killed on Tuesday inside a mosque in Sialkot, Pakistan, by unidentified gunmen. Latif was reportedly shot at close range by assailants who were familiar of the area topography, according to local news. This shows that local, homegrown terrorists were responsible for the murder, according to sources.Latif and 24 other terrorists were freed by India in 2010 as a result of efforts made by the UPA administration to mend relations with Pakistan. In fact, the same Jaish terrorists who hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 and were successful in freeing their leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, along with two others in return for 154 passengers in December 1999, also demanded Latif’s freedom. Latif and the other 31 people on Jaish’s “wish list” were not, however, released by the Vajpayee administration at the time.
