Chief of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) Malik Ishaq plans to attack ASWJ, Jamaat-ud-Dawa and PML-N politicians?
Special Report
Lahore: Malik Ishaq plans to attack ASWJ, Jamaat-ud-Dawa and PML-N politicians? The Press conference of Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed claiming that Malik Ishaq was behind the murder of some leaders of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) is being considered as a twist in the policy of Punjab Government.
Circles close to Malik Ishaq are of the view that this press conference is a part of international conspiracy against Malik Ishaq as US States Department has tagged him a Global Terrorists in February 6, 2014.
While top bureaucrats and police officials say that interrogation with the six arrested terrorists in Lahore is an eye opener for Punjab government because grilling of hardcore terrorists revealed that Malik Ishaq of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) who is a close friend of home minster of Punjab Rana Sanaullah Khan ordered for the killing of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ)’s Punjab chief Maulana Shamsur Rehman Muawiya. Name of Aurangzeb Farooqi, another leader of LJ is also under investigation in the murder of Maulana Shamsur Rehman because police believe that Aurangzeb Farooqi and Malik Ishaq both were involved in this murder.
Many of other ASWJ leaders are on the hit list of this group. One of arrested terrorists also claim that Malik Ishaq gets information about whereabouts and movements of provincial ministers of Punjab and even of family members of Mian Shahbaz Sharif though his networking in Lahore Traffic Police. Malik Ishaq is also an active member of Difa-e-Pakistan Council.
“These are very sensitive and dangerous information police got”, said one of the interrogator on the condition of anonymity.
Interrogations revealed that LJ target list does not include only Shias leaders rather of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Interrogation also indicates that LJ networking is spread within the ranks of Punjab Police and Lahore Traffic Police.
“These six terrorists who have been arrested by Lahore police with the direct support of federal intelligence agencies are hardcore killers and well connected within the ranks of Lahore police and that was the reason information about raids for their arrests were kept secret till last minutes before actual arrests of culprits”, claimed a top police official.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed confirmed that the arrested terrorists used to kill on the orders of Malik Ishaq. He added that journalists, politicians, members of parliament and religious figures (Shais and Deobandi) were included in their hit list. This is indigenous gang of Lahore and such gangs are also working in Rawalpindi, the police sources claim.
Chaudhry Shafiq said that Abdul Rauf Gujjar, of Badami Bagh, Mohammad Sabar, alias Ikram Khan, of Badmai Bagh, Sheikh Farhan Rafique, of Rehmanpura, Shafaqat Farooqi, of Shahdara, Mohammad Hashim, of Badami Bagh, and Suleman Pathan, of Bund Road, had admitted to their involvement in at least 18 murders and murder attempts on high-profile personalities, including Ghulam Raza Jaffari, Syed Ali Hussain Qizalbash, Mubashar Hussain, Shamsur Rehman, Shakir Ali Rizvi, Dr Syed Ali Haider, Khurram Raza Qadri, Allama Nasir Abbas, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Raza Rumi, Abid Naqvi, Dr Saghir Asghar and others.
Malik Ishaq is known for his close friendship with Home Minister Punjab Rana Sanaullah Khan and he has a level of comfort with Punjab government although LJ openly accepted the responsibility of Shia massacres of Hazara community in Quetta and killing of Shias of Gilgit and Baltistan. US States Department tagged Malik Ishaq as “Global Terrorists” on February 6, 2014 but lack of evidence against Malik Ishaq always gives him a way out of conviction although he had been arrested several times. He was arrested in February 2013 in connection with massacre of Hazara community as LJ took the responsibility of bombing Hazara community several times but the Supreme Court of Pakistan released Malik Ishaq on bail on July 14, 2013 because of insufficient evidence produced by the prosecution. Malik Ishaq’s counsel declared that his client had been imprisoned for over 12 years and that the prosecution had failed to produce any cogent evidence which could implicate him in any of the 44 cases of culpable homicide for which he was accused, out of which he had been acquitted in 34.
Intelligence agencies claim that founder of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) Malik Ishaq has constant contact with al Qaeda, Fedayeen-i-Islam , Jandullah and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and got funding from Gulf countries and also provided Jihadis for Syria war to fight against Syrian government but lack of evidence is major issue to clamp his activities. Intelligence agencies claim that he passed orders for killing of several leaders by sitting in Lahore jail but there is nobody to give witness against him due to terror and fear. He was accused of having executed the attack against the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009. According to States Department documents:
The Department of State has designated Malik Ishaq, one of the co-founders of Lashkar I Jhangvi (LJ), as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order (E.O.) 13224. The consequences of this designation include a prohibition against U.S. persons engaging in transactions with Malik Ishaq, and the freezing of all property and interests of Malik Ishaq that are in the United States, or come within the United States or the possession or control of U.S. persons.
Malik Ishaq is a founding member and is the current leader of LJ. In 1997, Malik Ishaq admitted his involvement in terrorist activity that resulted in the deaths of over 100 Pakistanis. More recently, in February 2013, Pakistani police arrested Ishaq in connection with attacks on January 10 and February 16, 2013 in the northwestern city of Quetta, Pakistan that killed nearly 200 Pakistani civilians. LJ claimed responsibility for the Quetta bombings.
In addition to Ishaq’s designation under E.O. 13224, the Department of State has also reviewed and maintained the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation of LJ in accordance with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. LJ specializes in armed attacks and bombings and has admitted responsibility for numerous killings of Shia religious and civil society leaders in Pakistan. LJ claimed responsibility for a 2013 attack in a crowded billiards hall in Quetta that resulted in the deaths of 80 Pakistanis.
As a result of maintaining the FTO designation, the legal consequences of the designation remain in place, including the prohibition against knowingly providing, or attempting or conspiring to provide, material support or resources to LJ, and the freezing of all LJ assets under the control or possession of U.S. financial institutions.
The US designated the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2003. In 2010, the US added two of the terror group’s top leaders, Amanullah Afridi and Matiur Rehman, LeJ’s operations chief, to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
The Treasury Department described Afridi as “a key figure in directing terrorist-related activities of LeJ for several years.” Afridi previously “prepared and provided suicide jackets for al Qaeda operations, trained suicide bombers and trained the assassin of Pakistani cleric Allama Hassan Turabi,” a prominent Shia cleric. Turabi, a prominent Shia cleric, was killed in June 2006 in Karachi by a 16-year-old Bangladeshi suicide bomber.
Lashkar-e-Jhanghvi commanders have also been killed in US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas. In February 2010, the US killed Qari Mohammad Zafar, a senior Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader as well as a leader of the al Qaeda and Taliban-linked Fedayeen-i-Islam, in a drone strike in North Waziristan. Zafar was behind multiple terror attacks in Pakistan and was wanted by the US for murdering a consular official in Karachi.
Pakistan added the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to its list of terror organizations in August 2001.
