LAHORE : Set to be released today, banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s chief Malik Ishaq has been remanded to judicial custody in a murder and terrorism case pending against him by a Pakistani court for two weeks.
Ishaq, who was involved in carrying out attacks on minority Shias and the assault on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, was ordered to be released last Monday after the Punjab provincial government did not seek extension of his detention under public order laws.
Ishaq was produced before Special Magistrate Ghulam Mujtaba Baloch in Multan yesterday in another murder and terrorism case registered against him in 2014 in Rahim Yar Khan district for killing a Shia (Hussain Abbas).
The magistrate remanded him to judicial custody for two weeks.
Ishaq had been under detention for the last three years under under Maintenance of Public Order (16 MPO), the same law under which key planner of 2008 Mumbai attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, is being held after being granted bail by an anti-terrorism court.
The PML-N government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had to face severe criticism from minority Shia community over the release of Ishaq.
Later, an intelligence report also submitted to the federal government saying that LeJ chief’s release may trigger another spat of sectarian killing in the country.
LeJ has claimed responsibility for numerous bloody attacks, including two bombings targeting Shiites in the southwestern city of Quetta in 2013 that killed a total of nearly 200 people. (AGENCIES)
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