Islamabad: A commander of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, along with an aide, has been killed during a raid by security forces on a hotel in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan`s Balochistan province, media reported Monday.
"The man killed was identified as Usman Saifullah Kurd who masterminded various suicide attacks and bombings at mosques belonging to the Hazara Shia community in Quetta and other areas of Balochistan," a senior police officer told Dawn.
A security man was also killed and three others were injured in an exchange of fire Sunday.
Kurd was wanted in various cases of terrorism and escaped from a jail in the Anti-Terrorism Force headquarters in the high security zone of Quetta cantonment in 2007.
He carried a bounty of Pakistani Rs.5 million (about $50,000) on his head.
Frontier Corps and other security agencies carried out the raid based on information about the presence of the commander and his companion at the hotel in Gahi Chowk area.
The militants, who were having lunch when security personnel entered the hotel, opened fire injuring four security personnel.
The security personnel retaliated and in the exchange of fire Usman and his aide, who could not be identified, were killed, the report said.
The injured security men were taken to the Combined Military Hospital where one of them died.
An anti-terrorism court in Quetta had sentenced the commander to death in 2003 for his involvement in two terrorist attacks in the city in which a large number of Shias were killed.
Quetta police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema said over 12 suspects were also arrested from the hotel.
