Riaz Basra was the co-founder and commander of Lashkar-e Jhangvi hailing from Sargodha. He participated in the Afghanistan war during 1980s and later joined Sipah-e Sahaba in 1986. Basra established LeJ in 1995 and also went to Afghanistan to assist the Taliban. After the fall of Taliban he returned to Pakistan, where he was killed in police shootout in May 2002. Akram Lahori is also the co-founder of LeJ and took over the reins of the outfit after the death of Basra. He orchestrated various sectarian based terrorism plots and also trained suicide bombers. He was arrested in June, 2004 at Karachi [43]. Malik Ishaq is one of the founding members of the outfit, who was arrested in 1998 and released in July 2011. He was again arrested in February 2013, for his alleged involvement in a bomb blast in Quetta against Shia Hazaras.[44]

[43] Stanford University. (2012). Mapping Militant Organizations: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. August 03, 2012. Retrieved on: September 24, 2013.Retrieved on: http://www.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/215.

[44] Dawn. (2013). LJ leader Malik Ishaq detained in Rahim Yar Khan. February 22, 2013. Retrieved on: September 24, 2013.Retrieved from: http://beta.dawn.com/news/787912/lj-leader-malik-ishaq-arrested-in-rahim-yar-khan.