In a shocker, reports are out that the mastermind behind the Pathankot terror attack has been once released by the then Manmohan Singh government. In 1999, along with the release of Azhar, JeM had demanded the release of his close aide, Shahid Latif, which Vajpayee had refused.

In 2010, however, the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh released Latif as a goodwill gesture to Pakistan. He later went on to become the handler of the four terrorists, who stormed the Pathankot base in India on January 2, 2016. According to reports, Latif is believed to have arranged the weapons, clothes and shoes of the jihadis apart from injections and medicines, food packets.