Lashkar-e-Jhangvi chief killed in Pak

Lahore, January 18 

Outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s chief Asif Chotu, who was on Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist list and carried a bounty of Rs 3,000,000 on his head, was killed along with his three associates near here, police said today.

“Four terrorists including the chief of banned LeJ were killed by the Counter-Terrorism Department in an encounter last night near Sheikhupura, about 40-km northwest of Lahore,” a CTD spokesperson said.

The killing of Asif Chotu alias Rizwan alias Nasir came 18 months after police executed his predecessor and the then LeJ Ameer Malik Ishaq in an encounter in July 2015.

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The CTD said the LeJ had been preparing to launch an attack on staff and offices of a sensitive agency in Lahore and they were coming on four motorcycles from Farooqabad towards Sheikhupura for onward journey to the city when they were shot.

Asif had joined banned Sipah-e-Sahaba in the 1990s. He was later appointed commander of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Karachi. After Ishaq’s death, he was made LeJ Ameer. He was directly involved in killing of 100 civilians. — PTI