The 2017 Nowhatta mob lynching, was the lynch mob murder and mutilation of an on-duty undercover Indian Jammu and Kashmir Police officer Muhammad Ayub Pandith, on the Muslim holy night of Laylat al-Qadr on Thursday 22 June 2017 by a mob in Nowhatta after a crowd shouted slogans in favor of Pakistan as well as al-Qaida jihadist Zakir Musa. Sajjad Ahmad Gilkar, a Hizbul Mujahideen militant, had played a key role in the lynching according to the state police.