Lashkar-e-Jhanvi leader placed under house arrest in Pak

Lashkar-e-Jhanvi 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 the name of Islam 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)