Pakistani police killed the head of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group as he attempted to escape custody in Punjab Province, officers said.
Malik Ishaq, along with his two sons Usman and Haq Nawaz and 11 others, were killed in an exchange of fire with police personnel late on Tuesday night, police said. At least six policemen were injured in the encounter, Al Jazeera reported.
Ishaq was on a US list of global “terrorists” and the group he founded has claimed responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, most of them minority Shia Muslims.
Ishaq and his sons were arrested by the country’s Counter-Terrorism Department a week ago.
Two high-ranking police officers said Ishaq and his sons were being moved between detention centers when a group of armed men attacked the convoy and freed them, but the notorious leader and his gang members were killed in the shootout.
