QUETTA: Usman Saifullah Kurd, an important leader of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, was killed along with an aide during a raid by security forces on a hotel in Sariab area here on Sunday.

A security man was also killed and three others were injured in an exchange of fire.

“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.

Usman Saifullah was wanted in various cases of terrorism. He had escaped from a jail in the Anti-Terrorism Force headquarters in the high security zone of Quetta cantonment in 2007.

He carried a head money of Rs5 million.

According to officials, the Frontier Corps and other security agencies carried out the raid on an information about the presence of Usman and his companion at the hotel in Gahi Chowk area.

Usman was having lunch and when security personnel entered the hotel his men opened fire, injuring four FC men.

Security personnel retaliated and a heavy exchange of fire took place in which Usman and his aide, who could not be identified, were killed.

The injured security men were taken to the Combined Military Hospital where one of them died.

“Usman Saifullah was a key commander of Sipah-i-Sahaba and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and was operating in Balochistan and Sindh,” the Balochistan home secretary told Dawn. He said Usman was reportedly the mastermind of many suicide attacks, bombings and target killings in Quetta and Karachi as well as attacks on Shia pilgrims’ buses in Quetta, Mastung and Taftan areas of Balochistan.

“Usman was wanted in about 34 cases,” the police officer said, adding that initial investigation suggested that his involvement could not be ruled out in the recent suicide attack on a Shikarpur mosque in which over 60 people were killed.

An anti-terrorism court in Quetta had sentenced Usman to death in 2003 for his involvement in two terrorist attacks in the city in which a large number of people of the Shia community were killed.

Quetta police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema said security forces had also arrested over 12 suspects from the hotel. They were being interrogated, he added.

Published in Dawn February 16th , 2015

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