LeJ leader arrested over attacks on Shias in Pak

The leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, responsible for terror attacks on the minority Shia sect that killed nearly 200 in Quetta, was arrested in Pakistan on Friday, even as security forces killed two other members of the group in a pre-dawn operation.

The former head of Sunni extremist group, Malik Ishaq was taken into “protective custody” for a month under the Maintenance of Public Order law from his residence in Rahim Yar Khan district, 400 km from Lahore.

Before the arrest, Ishaq held an hour-long meeting with district police chief Sufail Zafar and agreed to “surrender”, sources said. Ishaq also invited reporters to his residence before his arrest and told them that he would continue his “mission”.

He claimed: “I have no link with the carnage in Quetta. We want peace in the country.”

The LeJ claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in a Shia-dominated area of Quetta that killed 91 people and injured nearly 200. A majority of the victims were members of the minority Shia Hazara community. On January 10, twin suicide bombings by the LeJ killed 92 Shia Hazaras in Quetta.

Meanwhile, two members of LeJ were killed and four detained during a pre-dawn operation by security forces in Quetta city of southwest Pakistan today. Frontier Corps personnel surrounded a house during the raid in Nawan Kili area of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.