Gunmen kill a member of an anti-India group and a worshipper at a mosque in eastern Pakistan
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A pair of gunmen walked into a mosque in eastern Pakistan on Wednesday and opened fire at the worshippers, killing a member of an outlawed anti-India militant group and another man before fleeing the scene, authorities said.
According to the police, the gunmen pretended to be worshipers when they walked into the mosque in Daska, a city in eastern Punjab province.
Once inside, they pulled out their firearms and fatally shot Shahid Latif, a militant and close aide to Masood Azhar, the founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group. They also shot and killed a worshipper whose identity was not revealed.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but local police chief Hassan Iqbal said it appeared that Latif was intentionally targeted. The police chief did not provide further details.
New Delhi has blamed Jaish-e-Mohammad for multiple past attacks in India, including the 2016 attack when seven soldiers were killed at a base in the town of Pathankot in northern India.
New Delhi officials did not immediately comment on the attack. Media reports in India have said that Latif was sought over the Pathankot attack.
In 2016, Pakistani authorities registered a case against “unknown suspects” in connection with the attack after Indian investigators claimed that phone intercepts suggested the Pathankot attackers had come from Pakistan.
Pakistan and India have a long history of bitter relations. Since independence from Britain in 1947, the two South Asian rivals have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed in its entirety by both.