Extremist leader held after Quetta bombings

23 February AFP

Pakistani police yesterday detained the head of a banned Sunni Muslim extremist group that claimed responsibility for deadly sectarian bomb attacks in the southern city of Quetta.

Malik Ishaq, the leader Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ), was held after two recent bombings in the city targeting the Shiite Hazara minority killed more than 180 people, sparking nationwide protests.

Shiites, who make up around 20 percent of the mostly Sunni Muslim population of 180 million, are facing record numbers of attacks, raising serious questions about security as nuclear-armed Pakistan prepares to hold elections by mid-May.

Ishaq was detained at his home in the central city of Rahim Yar Khan, where he was living openly, before being taken to a local jail, police said.

He was being held under the "Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law on the orders of the Punjab provincial government," a senior police official in Rahim Yar Khan, Tanveer Ahmad, told.