One of Pakistan's most feared terrorists killed while in police custody

The death of Haroon Bhatti is a major blow to the Sunni extremist group that has been linked to scores of bombings and assassinations, often aimed at Pakistan's Shiite minority. It also signals that Pakistan's offensive against Islamist militant groups continues to broaden into more urban parts of the country.

According to Pakistani media reports, Bhatti was killed while he was acting as a police informant in the the eastern city of Lahore.

In Late October, Pakistani authorities worked with Interpol to extradite Bhatti, who was wanted for more than a dozen terrorist attacks, after he was detained in Dubai. Since then, Bhatti was believed to have been confined to a Pakistani prison.

But Bhatti was allowed out of jail on Wednesday so he could direct police to the suspected terorrist safe house. When police arrived at the house, the suspects inside began shooting. Police returned fire, and Bhatti was killed in the crossfire, officials said.

"He accompanied a police raid party to identify the house where terrorists were staying," Umar Virk, a senior police official in Lahore, told The Washington Post. "Those terrorists started firing at the raiding party and Bhatti was killed along with three other terrorists."

Bhatti's death follows the July killing of Malik Ishaq, the former leader of Laskhar-i-Jhangvi. He had been in out and prison for decades but still managed a vast terrorist network from behind bars. He also died in police custody.

In that incident, Ishaq and his two sons were shot and killed while being transported in a police convoy in Lahore.

Pakistani police said they were killed in crossfire after Laskhar-i-Jhangvi supporters opened fire on a police van to try to free them.

There is broad suspicion in Pakistan, however, that Ishaq may have been killed extrajudicially so he couldn't be freed in court.

Since its founding in the mid-1990s, Laskhar-i-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for some of Pakistan's deadliest terrorist attacks, including a series of bombings in the western city of Quetta in 2013 that killed more than100 people. The group also carried out a 2009 attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team, which wounded several players and caused many foreign sports teams to cancel matches in Pakistan.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi also has links to al-Qaida. In 2013, a Laskhar-i-Jhangvi's militant from Karachi was arrested in connection with the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

But Laskhar-i-Jhangvi militants, who were known for intimidating judges and witnesses, have been repeatedly freed by Pakistan's court system.

Before Ishaq was killed, 72 different judges and prosecutors refused to participate in cases involving him, the Pakistan Express Tribune newspaper reported this summer.

The group also retaliates against lawmakers and police officials.

In August, Punjab's home minister and 16 other people were killed when a bomb was planted in the minister's office. Officials said Lashkar-e-Jhangvi carried out that bombing in retaliation for the deaths of Malik Ishaq and his two sons.

Despite that attack, Pakistan has experienced a major reduction in violence this year.

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 866 Pakistani civilians have been killed in terrorist attacks so far this year, compared to 1,569 during the first 11 months of last year.