LeJ's Malik Ishaq arrested in Lahore
31 August, 2012
LAHORE: Malik Ishaq, leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is said to have links to al Qaeda, was arrested in Lahore on Thursday, police said. Ishaq is accused of inciting sectarian hatred and masterminding an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009. He was arrested after his return from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, police spokeswoman Nabila Ghazanfar said. "I can confirm his arrest," she said, adding that he would be produced in a local court on Friday. Police had registered a case against him after his "provocative speech to spread sectarian hatred" at a religious gathering in Lahore earlier this month, police official Liaquat Ali said. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, regarded as one of the fiercest extremist groups in the country, was banned more than a decade ago by former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf. It is accused of killing hundreds of Shias after its emergence in the early 1990s. Ishaq was arrested in 1997 and is implicated in dozens of cases, mostly murder. He was released on bail in July last year after serving a jail term of nearly 14 years. Since his release, he had been frequently put under house arrest as his sermons raised sectarian tensions, officials said. Ishaq was also accused of masterminding, from behind bars, the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. End.
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