Shahid Latif had coordinated the attack from Sialkot and sent down four JeM terrorists to Pathankot to execute the plan.

Islamabad: Shahid Latif, the key conspirator of the Pathankot terror attack and one of India’s most wanted terrorists, was shot dead by unknown assailants in Pakistan’s Sialkot on Wednesday, reports suggested. As per preliminary reports, three unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle shot Latif and two of his associates near the Noor Madina Mosque in Punjab’s Daska after the Fajr prayer. While two of them died on the spot, while one was injured in the incident.

Notably, the 41-year-old Shahid Latif was a member of the proscribed terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and he was one of the key conspirators behind the Pathankot attack launched on January 2, 2016. Latif had coordinated the attack from Sialkot and sent down four JeM terrorists to Pathankot to execute the plan.

It should be noted that Latif was arrested in India in November 1994 on terror charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and then he was put to trial and eventually jailed. He had spent 16 years in Kot Balwal, Jammu jail, alongside Masood Azhar.

Giving details, police said Latif was killed inside a mosque and they are trying to identify the attackers. Notably, the assailants left the scene on a motorcycle and cops have launched a probe into the killing.

41-year-old Latif was accused of hijacking an Indian airlines plane in 1999, and had been listed as a wanted terrorist by India in 2010.