Pakistani police killed the head of the banned group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi as he attempted to escape custody in Punjab province, officers said Wednesday.
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“A special team was organised to visit the area with Malik Ishaq, his two sons and colleague Ghulam Rasool to recover explosives from a house situated in Shah Wali area of Muzaffargarh”, Tahir said.
Police said that Malik Ishaq and his two sons were killed in crossed firing by the militants themselves.
Ishaq’s killing may lead to retaliatory attacks on civilian targets, said Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, director of the School of Politics and worldwide Relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.
Police say he died when a group of armed supporters tried to liberate him from a police convoy in Punjab province.
Ishaq had been charged with murdering 70 people in 44 cases, but was acquitted in all after witnesses refused to testify.
Police further along the road attacked the gunmen as they fled, killing Ishaq, his two sons, and 11 others, Ghazanfar cited the policeman as saying.
LeJ, long seen as being close to Al Qaeda and more recently accused of developing links with ISIL, has a reputation as being one of Pakistan’s most ruthless militant groups.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a violent sectarian outfit founded at the Minar-e-Pakistan Lahore, received a fatal blow during Wednesday’s operation conducted in connection with a counter-terrorism campaign aimed to savePakistan whose foundation was also laid at the same place. The LeJ has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest attacks on the Shia community in recent history, including two suicide bombings in Quetta in early 2013 that killed more than 180 people.
Four police guards were injured. It also said Ishaq and his associates were killed by those who ambushed the convoy, without elaborating.
Ishaq’s postmortem is in process at District Headquarters Hospital (DHQH), Muzaffargarh. The police said Ishaq and the other 11 were killed in the shootout. Frightened judges treated him honorably in court and gave him tea and cookies, said Anis Haider Naqvi, a prosecution witness in two cases against Ishaq who spoke to The Associated Press in 2011.
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He was accused of masterminding dozens of attacks against Shiites. He was arrested in 1997 and released on bail in July 2011 after serving a jail term of nearly 14 years. “He used to inspire the rank and file of LeJ more than Basra”, said an official who is considered authority on sectarian militancy.
