Senior Militant Killed in Security Forces Encounter

Police said that a senior commander of the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was killed in a shootout by the security forces in Baluchistan province.

The suspected mastermind of the recent Shikarpur Imambargah, LeJ Baluchistan head Usman Saifullah, was hiding in a hotel near Gahi Khan chowk in Quetta when the security forces launched a raid killing him and one other militant, police said.

"Usman Saifullah who is a senior commander of the LeJ and its head in Baluchistan was killed today (Sunday) after a shootout with security forces," senior police official Bashir Brohi told reporters.

While another security official said that the Frontier Corps assisted by some intelligence officials had struck an inn close to Gahi Khan chowk on the Saryab road; in which two aggressors were killed and one captured.

"There were some militants hiding in the hotel and for defence they fired on the security forces in which two of them, including Usman, were killed," police official said, adding that five security personnel were injured in the shootout while one militant was arrested alive from the hotel.

"A high value terrorist, Usman was also involved in the killing of members of the Hazara community who have been systematically targeted and killed in the province. "He had also escaped from the Anti-Terrorist Force Jail in Quetta Cantonment in 2008," the official said.

The Baluchistan Home Department had announced Rs two and a half million bounty on his head. Intelligence sources also said the commander had close contacts to both al Qaeda and the Afghan 

Taliban.

However, militant group Jundullah had claimed responsibility for the Friday bombing of an Imambargah in Shikarpur that killed nearly 60 people recently.