Produced by: Mehak Agarwal
Designed by: Manoj Kumar
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) commander Shahid Latif on Wednesday was shot dead by unknown assailants in Pakistan’s Sialkot city. Latif has been involved in the planning, facilitation, and execution of terror attacks in India.
Latif lived in Daska Tehsil in the Sialkot district located in Pakistan’s northern Punjab region, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Latif was the “key conspirator and co-ordinator” of the 2016 Pathankot attack. He was also the handler of the four terrorists who entered the Pathankot Air Force Station. The attack on the air force station in Pathankot claimed the lives of nine soldiers whereas 22 others were wounded.
The assault on the Pathankot Indian Air Force base was carried out by armed terrorists from Pakistan, who were associated with the Jaish-e-Mohammed. This attack led to a 17-hour-long gunfight between security forces personnel and the attackers, claiming the lives of nine security forces personnel.
He was also an accused in the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar. Not only this, Shahid Latif was also one of those whose release was demanded unsuccessfully by terrorists. The then Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government had refused to release Latif and 31 other terrorists.
On December 24, 1999, Indian Airlines flight IC814 took off from Kathmandu and was scheduled to reach Delhi. The flight had 189 people on board, including both the passengers and the crew members. Shortly after the flight took off, the plane made a long journey to Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai before stopping at Kandahar in Afghanistan, which was under Taliban’s rule at the time.
The plane hijackers executed 25-year-old Rupin Katyal and negotiated the release of terrorists Masood Azhar, Syed Omar Shaikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar from jails in exchange of the then Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Syed’s daughter Rubaiya Syed and other hostages.
In 1994, Shahid Latif was arrested in India in a case pertaining to narcotics and terrorism. He spent 16 years in Kot Balwal jail in Jammu with JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar.
Shahid Latif was released in 2010 after serving 16 arduous years in prison by the Manmohan Singh government. Latif’s release along with 20 other terrorists was a part of the then UPA government’s attempt to repair ties with Pakistan.
After his release in 2010, Shahid Latif joined terrorist modules and joined the Jihadi factory in Pakistan. Here, he continued with his anti-India acts, as per the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The central agency further said that Latif adopted the aliases Chota Shahid Bhai and Noor Al Din. Following this, the Indian government listed Latif as a wanted terrorist.