The story of 56-year-old Malik Ishaq -- a central figure who must single-handedly share blame for the anti-Shia carnage of at least two decades -- came to a gruesome end two weeks back. Ishaq, a lethal operator of the country’s major defunct militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), was killed on July 29 in a pre-dawn ‘police encounter’ in district Muzaffargarh’s deserted jungle. Thirteen others including his two sons, key aides and gunmen were also killed in the ‘shoot-out’. The ‘encounter’, according to the police, began after his supporters tried to get Ishaq and five others freed from police custody while the police squad was on its way back after ‘recovery’ of some explosive material and arms from a place raided on Ishaq’s tip.

"More than a dozen supporters attacked the squad entering into exchange of fire and ending up in the death of six militants in police custody and eight attackers, while some managed to escape," said a senior police official while talking to TNS, dispelling the impression that this was a staged encounter. "Six policemen were also injured in the exchange of fire."

The sudden death of Malik Ishaq came as a shock to everyone, especially those who had blamed the country’s establishment for nurturing such militants and cursed the faulty criminal justice system for not prosecuting cases of terrorism. Faulty and incomplete investigations, poor prosecution, no witness protection, along with fear among judges and lawyers had made these criminals daring even in jails. This led to the release of militants like Ishaq due to ‘lack of evidence’.

According to police reports, the LeJ, long seen as close to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda, was also developing linkages with Daesh (IS) in recent years. After his final release from the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2011, Ishaq continued with his violent and hardcore anti-Shia policy for which he was detained and released from time to time. In 2013, he was under constant preventive detention that he had challenged before the Lahore High Court. He was formally arrested along with his two sons (those were said to be active in sectarian violence in Balochistan province) and his close aide Ghulam Rasool Shah and two others a couple of days before the ‘encounter’ took place.

"One can build an argument on both sides whether this encounter was planned or not. However, it definitely serves to weaken the hardcore militant group like LeJ. The message is so loud and clear that even those people who possibly could succeed Ishaq are also dead," says prominent political and security analyst Hassan Askari Rizvi. "There is no doubt that the existing criminal justice system has failed to address the trial of terrorists. This is a message that now there is a cost for such acts."

Expecting a limited backlash of this ‘encounter’, Rizvi says that a total elimination of such elements is not possible. "That is a long process and cannot be addressed without changing many social phenomena."

Ishaq, son of Ali Ahmed, a small cloth-shop owner in village Taranda Swaey Khan in district Rahim Yar Khan, was among hundreds of youth motivated by the fiery sectarian speeches of Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the founder of Sipah-e-Sahaba. Having spent some time in school, till class sixth, Ishaq was among those who were seriously motivated by the agenda of the group. He started assuming positions in the group at local level by the end of 1980s. During that time, he was working as a cigarette-vendor, according to police records. After working for three years at his father’s shop, in 1984 he started a business of cigarette agencies and worked till joining of Sipah-e-Sahaba after meeting Haq Nawaz Jhangvi when the latter came to in Rahim Yar Khan. He was first time detained in 1989 during Muharram on making hate speech.

When sectarian killings reached their peak in early 1990s, different religious groups formed the Milli Yakjehti Council (MYC -- Council for National Solidarity and Harmony) in 1995 with the backing of the state -- to reduce sectarian tensions by bringing Sipah-e-Sahaba and Shia groups on one platform. Ishaq, along with his close aides Riaz Basra and Akram Lahori, cofounded Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 1996 in response to his parent organisation joining the MYC.

Said to be involved in murders and terror activities, Ishaq was finally arrested from Faisalabad city in 1997 where he was absconding. Police reports suggest he confessed to more than 70 murders of Shia. This included killing of Iranian Counsel in Multan, Khana-e-Farhang-e-Iran, many police officers and government officials. He was also blamed for the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. Riaz Basra, the head of LeJ before Ishaq, was also killed in a similar ‘encounter’ in 2002 in the same region.

Ishaq is said to have been operating as LeJ head from jail. Akram Lahori (real name Muhammad Ajmal), another co-founder of the militant group and possible next chief of LeJ, is lying in a jail in Sindh at the moment. He faces charges of sectarian murders for the past many years. With a few pending cases left, Lahori too has been acquitted in the most of the terrorism cases due to ‘lack of evidence’.

A massive scale search operation continues across the Punjab province amid fears of backlash of Ishaq killing putting many cities across the province on high alert. "The fear is there and there are intelligence reports of some attacks in particular cities which have been put on red alert," says a senior police officer.

Muhammad Amir Rana, director of Pak Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), however, expects limited scale backlash that too in Balochistan or Hangu area where the LeJ act visits are organised as compared to the Punjab. He views that Malik Ishaq group was very strong in the Punjab province and its elimination is a major blow to the LeJ. "In Karachi, the LeJ people have already gone underground."

The situation after the acquittal of Ishaq has also created serious differences among the ranks of LeJ and their political front Ahl-e-Sunnah-Wal-Jamaat (former Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan). The ASWJ is led by Ahmed Ludhianvi for the past few years. He believes in political struggle to counter Shia-sect rather than violence. Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba, later renamed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, was formed in 1985 in Jhang, with its anti-Shia sloganeering heard across Pakistan, especially in the areas of southern Punjab. Till now, all previous chiefs of Sipah-e-Sshaba have been killed on political, militant or sectarian grounds and all were known as hardcore sectarian leaders. Ludhianvi is the sixth head of the parent organisation, who claims to be an "ambassador of peace" and advocates the use of political means to fulfill the mission to make Pakistan a "Sunni State" and declare Shia sect as non-Muslim through parliament.

"After Ishaq’s acquittal, he was also made central vice president of ASWJ on the pursuance of a sizable pressure group within ASWJ. However, after knowing Ishaq’s involvement in terrorist activities, the party removed him and also cancelled his party membership," an ASWJ insider tells TNS.

The killing of Shams-ur-Rehman Moavia, the Punjab head of ASWJ in December 2013, is said to have been done at the behest of the Ishaq group after failing to make its position strong in the party, according to police reports and party insiders. Moavia won party election against the son of Azam Tariq, a top hardcore sectarian leader who headed Sipah-e-Sahaba for almost six years till his murder in October 2003.

"Hardcore pressure groups are not unusual in any party. But it seems that the moderate position and the political face of the ideology (ASWJ) is currently being strengthened and would also be backed by the state. For those elements who will try to take over the group again with a militant approach, the message is loud and clear," he says.