Malik Ishaq (; 1959 – 29 July 2015) was a

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...

globally designated terrorist, and leader and co-founder of the

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) , Army of Jhangvi) was a Deobandi terrorist organisation driven by a Takfiri Anti-Shia ideology based in Afghanistan. The LeJ was an offshoot of anti-Shia party Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The LeJ was founde ...

(LeJ) terrorist organization. Formerly a member of

anti-Shia Anti-Shi'ism, also known as Shiaphobia, is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Shia Muslims because of their religious beliefs, traditions, and cultural heritage. The term was first used b ...

militant group

Sipah-e-Sahaba The Sipah-e-Sahaba (SS), also known as the Millat-e-Islamiyya (MI), was a banned Sunni Islamist Deobandi organisation in Pakistan. Founded by Pakistani cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in 1989 after breaking away from Sunni Deobandi party Jamiat Ulem ...

, Ishaq co-founded the LeJ in 1996. Under Ishaq's leadership, the LeJ claimed responsibility for several mass-casualty attacks largely targeting Pakistan's Shia and

Barelvi The Barelvi movement, also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement that generally adheres to the Hanafi school, Hanafi and Shafi'i school, Shafi'i schools of jurisprudenc ...

population, including multiple bombings that killed over 200 Hazara Shias in

Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...

in 2013. He was also accused of masterminding the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

in 2009, and the Ashura bombings in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

in 2011. Malik was killed, along with his two sons and deputy Ghulam Rasool Shah, in a

police encounter Encounter killings, often simply referred to as encounters, is a euphemism used in South Asia to refer to extrajudicial killings by security forces. The officers typically described the incidents as a shootout situation, often allegedly starting ...

on 29 July 2015, the circumstances of which are disputed. Punjab Home Minister

Shuja Khanzada Colonel Shuja Khanzada (‎; 28 August 1943 – 16 August 2015) was a Pakistani politician and Pakistan Army colonel, who served as the Home Minister of Punjab from 2014 until his assassination on 16 August 2015. As an army officer, Khanzad ...

was assassinated in Attock a month later, in an attack claimed by LeJ as retaliation. Ishaq was described by various news agencies as Pakistan's most feared terror kingpin. He was sanctioned as a

Specially Designated Global Terrorist A Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) is a person or entity that has been designated as such by the United States Department of State or the U.S. Department of the Treasury. An SDGT designation is made under authority of U.S. Executive ...

under the

Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, also known as the SDN List, is a United States government sanctions/embargo measure targeting U.S.-designated terrorists, officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes, a ...

by the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

Office of Foreign Assets Control The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Treasury, United States Treasury Department. It administers and enforces economic and trade economic sanctions, ...

Early life

Malik Ishaq was born to a poor family in

Rahim Yar Khan District Rahim Yar Khan District (Urdu: ضلع رحیم یار خان, Punjabi: ضلع ریم یار خان) is a Districts of Pakistan#Punjab, district in the province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan. Its headquarters is the city of Rahim Yar Kha ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, Pakistan. His father was a cloth merchant. Educated until sixth class, Ishaq spent three years working at his father's shop until 1984, when he began working as a cigarette vendor according to police records.

Sipah-e-Sahaba member

Ishaq came under the influence of

Haq Nawaz Jhangvi Haq Nawaz Jhangvi ( Punjabi/, ''Ḥaq Nawāz Jhangvī''; 1952 – 23 February 1990) was a Pakistani cleric who founded the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a Sunni Deobandi group known for its anti-Shia thoughts, on 6 September 1986. Early li ...

, the founder of

militant group

Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan The Sipah-e-Sahaba (SS), also known as the Millat-e-Islamiyya (MI), was a banned Sunni Islamist Deobandi organisation in Pakistan. Founded by Pakistani cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in 1989 after breaking away from Sunni Deobandi party Jamiat Ule ...

(SSP), in the 1980s. The SSP claimed to be countering the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

and the Pakistan-based pro-Iranian Shia activist group Tehreek Nifaz-e-Fiqh Jafariya Pakistan. Ishaq became an active participant in the SSP's activities, and was jailed for the first time for acts of

hate speech Hate speech is a term with varied meaning and has no single, consistent definition. It is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as ...

during

Muharram Al-Muharram () is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is banned. It precedes the month of Safar. The tenth of Muharram is known as Ashura, an important day of commemoration in ...

in 1989.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi co-founder and leader

In 1996, Ishaq, along with Riaz Basra and Akram Lahori, co-founded LeJ, a violent

splinter group A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

of the original SSP. He confessed his involvement in the killing of 102 Shias to an Urdu newspaper in October 1997, before being rearrested. He assumed senior leadership of LeJ from jail after Basra was killed in a

in 2002. Forging ties with

al Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

and the

Pakistani Taliban The Pakistani Taliban, officially the Tehreek-i-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, its current ...

following the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, Ishaq was charged with more than 100 murders and 45 criminal cases, including masterminding the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in

in 2009. He was never convicted, owing to weak evidence and intimidation of judges and witnesses.

Release and possible deal

Ishaq was released on bail after 14 years in July 2011, amid speculation of a deal and growing ties with the

Pakistan Muslim League (N) The Pakistan Muslim League (N) or (PML(N)) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right, Conservatism in Pakistan, conservative political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third-largest party in the Senate of Pakistan, Senate and the larges ...

, the ruling party in Punjab. He was showered with rose petals by supporters, and received by Tahir Ashrafi and SSP president Ahmad Ludhianvi. The province's Law Minister

Rana Sanaullah Rana Sanaullah Khan (; born 1 January 1955) is a Pakistani lawyer and politician who is currently serving as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs since April 2024. Previously, he served as the 39th Interior Minister of Pak ...

denied there was any deal behind Ishaq's release, but said extremist leaders were free to join politics if they eschewed violence. Sanaullah said of the occasion, "We are in touch with those who have become, or want to become, useful citizens." Soon after his release,

The Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are distributed to its members, major ...

reported Ishaq again making public speeches against the Shia community and threatening his opponents on 4 September 2011, saying "We know how to kill and how to die." Ishaq was appointed vice-president of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, the renamed SSP, in 2012.

Ashura bombings in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif

On 6 December 2011, a

suicide bomber A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

attacked the Abu Fazl Mosque in the

Murad Khane Murad Khani or Murad Khane () is a small historical neighborhood in Kabul, Afghanistan. The neighborhood is part of the city's District 2, situated north of the Kabul River between Da Afghanistan Bank, Ministry of Defense, Eidgah Mosque, Pul-e ...

neighbourhood of

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

, claiming more than 50 lives. The second bomb took place near the Blue Mosque in the northern city of

Mazar-e-Sharif Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highway ...

, where four people were killed. Ishaq's LeJ claimed responsibility. Afghanistan President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...

said he would discuss the matter with Pakistan.

Quetta bombings

Ishaq was rearrested after the LeJ claimed responsibility for multiple bombings that killed over 200 Hazara Shias in

January January is the first month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the year within most of the No ...

and

February February is the second month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 in leap years, with the February 29, 29th day being called the ''leap day''. February is the third a ...

, 2013. Taken together, the bombings were the deadliest attack against any

minority Minority may refer to: Politics * Minority government, formed when a political party does not have a majority of overall seats in parliament * Minority leader, in American politics, the floor leader of the second largest caucus in a legislative b ...

in the

history of Pakistan The history of Pakistan prior to its independence in 1947 spans several millennia and covers a vast geographical area known as the Greater Indus region. Anatomically modern humans arrived in what is now Pakistan between 73,000 and 55,000 yea ...

Death and aftermath

Malik Ishaq was killed in

Muzaffargarh Muzaffargarh is a city in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Located on the bank of the Chenab River, it is the capital of the eponymous district. It is the 39th most populous city of Pakistan. History The Muzaffargarh region was an agricultura ...

, Punjab, in a police encounter with the Counter Terrorism Department of the Punjab Police on the morning of 29 July 2015, along with his two sons, Usman and Haq Nawaz. Also killed among Ishaq's entourage were 11 others, including his deputy and purported LeJ second-in-command Syed Ghulam Rasool Shah, as well as Shah's two sons. According to the police, Ishaq and his associates were being shifted from

Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...

to Muzaffargarh to locate an illegal weapons storage site, when a group of armed supporters attacked the police convoy in an attempt to free Ishaq.AFP
news
published by Sky News etrieved 2015-07-29/ref> This was disputed by local and international news agencies including ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'', which stated, "The police have barely bothered to pretend the incident was anything other than a mass extra-judicial killing."

Assassination of Home Minister Shuja Khanzada

On 16 August 2015, the home office of Punjab

Home Minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergenc ...

, located in

Shadikhan Shadi Khan is a village in Chach Valley of Attock District in Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab Province of Pakistan. Suicide bombing On 16 August 2015, the interior minister of Punjab, Shuja Khanzada, and at least 22 others were killed in a 2015 Attock bo ...

Attock Attock ( Punjabi, ), formerly known as Campbellpur (Punjabi, ), is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, not far from the country's capital Islamabad. It is the headquarters of the Attock District and is 36th largest city in the Punjab and 61st largest c ...

, was attacked by two

s, killing Khanzada and 18 others. Preliminary reports prepared by Pakistani law enforcement agencies suggested Khanzada was attacked in retaliation for the killing of Malik Ishaq. The LeJ claimed responsibility for the attack, confirming it was for Ishaq's killing in July.

Notes

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ishaq, Malik 1959 births 2015 deaths Terrorism in Pakistan People from Rahim Yar Khan District Pakistani prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Pakistan People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Pakistan Critics of Shia Islam Deobandis Sunni Islamists Pakistani Sunni Muslims Pakistani Islamists Deaths by firearm in Pakistan Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan people Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List Individuals designated as terrorists by the United States government Leaders of jihadist groups