Those killed included Riaz Basra and Asif Ramzi, two top LeJ leaders. Basra, Pakistan's most wantedsectarian terrorist, was killed along with three of his accomplices during an encounter in Mailsi on May 14,2002. He is reported to have established a training camp at Sarobi near Kabul in Afghanistan where recruitsfrom Pakistan were trained in the use of firearms and explosives for carrying out sectarian attacks inPakistan and against the Taliban's Afghan opposition (the erstwhile Northern Alliance).
Asif Ramzi, a most-wanted LeJ terrorist and a proclaimed offender for over 12 years, was a key link betweenlocal Islamist terrorists, and the Taliban and Al Qaeda. He was wanted for involvement in more than 87 casesof murder, attacks on embassies and other terrorist acts, and had a price of Rupees three million on his head.US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials suspected that Ramzi manufactured the bombs used in the May8, 2002, blast outside the Sheraton Hotel. He was among the seven persons killed in the December 19-explosionat a chemical warehouse in the Korangi area of Karachi.
Akram Lahori, another front ranking LeJ terrorist involved in 38 cases of sectarian killings in Sindh, wasarrested in Karachi on June 17, 2002. After Riaz Basra's death, Lahori was acting as the LeJ chief and he hadhimself monitored and taken part in sectarian killings in Karachi, where he was residing for the preceding oneand a half years. Lahori, arrested along with five accomplices from Orangi Town in Karachi, reportedlyconfessed that dozens of the group's activists had been prepared for suicide missions under the guidance oftop Al Qaeda leaders holed up in different parts of the country. In the continuing crackdown, on May 29, 2003,Qari Abdul Hayee, the succeeding acting LeJ chief, was arrested during a surprise raid conducted in theMuzaffargarh district.
Despite these various reversals, however, the group appears to have retained a substantial capacity to strike,and it has emerged as a key provider of logistical support and personnel to the remnants of the Al Qaeda andTaliban currently present in Pakistan. Indeed, many LeJ cadres are reported to have joined various frontoutfits of the Al Qaeda that emerged in the aftermath of the January 12-proscription. The LeJ was also said tobe involved in a majority of the attacks on Christians and Western targets in Pakistan during 2002.
Among the others, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a Sunni group, and the Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP),a Shia extremist group, lay low temporarily in the aftermath of their proscription. They did not, however,alter their organizational structure and, though their cadres went underground for some time, openly resumedtheir political activities after a brief hibernation.