The police chief of Pakistan's Punjab province has announced that a significant number of individuals suspected of involvement in the killing of a key aide to the leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist group, Masood Azhar, and two of his associates, have been apprehended. This development comes in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of these three individuals at a mosque in Sialkot city.
Shahid Latif, the mastermind behind the 2016 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, as well as his security guard Hashim Ali, fell victim to gunfire by three assailants while they were engaged in prayer within a mosque in Daska city, situated in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Tragically, their prayer leader and close associate, Maulana Ahad, was also injured and later succumbed to his wounds in a hospital.
The Inspector General of Police for Punjab, Dr. Usman Anwar, without explicitly naming the responsible nation, insinuated the involvement of a "rogue nation and its hostile intelligence agency" in orchestrating the terror attack in Pakistan. He disclosed that all three perpetrators connected to this incident have been identified and apprehended. In addition, arrests have been made in various locations, including Sialkot, Lahore, Pakpattan, Kasur, and other districts within the Punjab province. Dr. Anwar revealed that the attack was conceived outside of Pakistan and executed with the assistance of an individual dispatched by the hostile intelligence agency, specifying the precise dates when the individual arrived and executed the plan.
He highlighted the collaborative efforts of Pakistan's security agencies in identifying the "facilitators, perpetrators, and executors" behind the attack and emphasized that most of them have been taken into custody. These individuals will soon be presented before the court with supporting evidence.
The District Police Officer of Sialkot, Muhammad Hasan Iqbal, classified this as a "targeted killing" and an "incident of terrorism."
Shahid Latif, a native of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, held a significant role as the administrator of Noori-e-Madina Masjid in Daska for numerous years. His involvement in the Jaish-e-Mohammad group has been associated with multiple past attacks in India, including the Pathankot attack that resulted in the deaths of seven soldiers at a military base in northern India.
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