Terrorist attack on Lankan cricket team in Pakistan:
Alleged mastermind under house arrest
Lshkar-e-Jhai leader Malik Ishaq, the alleged mastermind of the 2009
terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, was today placed under
house arrest in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Ishaq, who was recently
released from a jail in Lahore on the orders of a court, was confined to
his home in Rahim Yar Khan for 10 days under the Maintenance of Public
Order law, officials were quoted as saying by news channels.
The order for Ishaq’s detention was issued this morning and a police
contingent deployed at his house. District Police chief Sohail Zafar
Chattha has confirmed that Ishaq has been placed under house arrest for
10 days. Punjab government had issued a directive for Ishaq’s detention
due to concerns that he posed a threat to peace, media reports said.
The move came a day after the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed
responsibility for the massacre of 29 Shias at Mastung in Balochistan
Province. It could not immediately be ascertained if Ishaq’s detention
was linked to the killings that were widely condemned by the minority
Shia community and rights groups.
The Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked on March 3, 2009, when a bus
carrying the cricketers, was fired upon by gunmen near the Gaddafi
Stadium in Lahore, where the third day of the second test between the
two teams was to get underway.
Since his release from jail in July, Ishaq had been touring many
parts of Punjab and addressing public meetings, the reports said, adding
he had been preaching hatred and violence in his speeches. Ishaq,
accused of murdering 70 people, most of them Shias, has been involved in
“highly objectionable activities”, said a document recently prepared by
the Law Enforcement Department of the Punjab government.
(Source: PTI)
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