The leader of an anti-Shiite group behind some of Pakistan’s worst sectarian atrocities was killed in a shootout with police early yesterday, along with 13 other militants, authorities said.
Malik Ishaq was shot dead along with fellow Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants, including senior commanders, in the eastern province of Punjab.
LeJ, long seen as close to al-Qaeda and more recently accused of developing links with the Islamic State group, has a reputation as one of Pakistan’s most ruthless militant groups.
The shootout appears to have wiped out much of the top leadership of LeJ, a driving force in a rising tide of violence targeting Shiite Muslims, who make up about 20 percent of Pakistan’s 200 million majority Sunni Muslim population.
As well as numerous sectarian atrocities, LeJ was also blamed for the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore.
Ishaq, who had been in and out of police custody in recent years, was arrested on Saturday and was being moved when loyalists attacked the convoy in Muzaffargarh, a senior police official said on condition of anonymity.
“The police retaliated and in the encounter Ishaq, his two sons and 11 others were killed, while six policemen were injured,” he said.
Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada confirmed that Ishaq and “13 other sectarian militants, including two of his sons” had been killed.
According to a police account sent to journalists, the shootout came when LeJ militants tried to free Ishaq after police had taken him to recover a cache of explosives.
Those killed reportedly included Ghulam Rasool Shah, a hardline LeJ chief who acted as the group’s leader when Ishaq — designated a global terrorist by the US Department of State last year — was behind bars.
Yesterday’s killings are the latest blow to militancy in Pakistan, where in the past year authorities have cracked down hard on the myriad insurgent groups that have plagued the country for a decade.
So-called “encounter” killings like yesterday’s incident have long aroused suspicion among rights activists in Pakistan, who accuse the authorities of using them as a means of disposing of troublesome militants and criminals without going through the courts.
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