Leader Of Banned Pakistani Extremist Group Arrested

Police escort suspected militants of banned Al-Qaeda-linked extremist group Lashkar-e Jhangvi to a court in Karachi in 2009.

Police in Pakistan say the leader of a banned Sunni extremist group has been arrested.

Malik Ishaq, leader of Lashkar-e Jhangvi, is accused of inciting sectarian hatred and masterminding an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009.

Police announced on August 30 that Ishaq had been arrested in the eastern city of Lahore after returning from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Lashkar-e Jhangvi, which allegedly has links to Al-Qaeda, is accused of killing hundreds of minority Shi'ite Muslims after its emergence in the early 1990s.

Meanwhile, the United States has slapped sanctions on eight Pakistanis allegedly linked to the militant group Lashkar-e Taiba, one of them allegedly a key planner of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
Based on reporting by AFP