KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - One of Pakistan’s most wanted militants has been killed with an accomplice in a shootout with police after being on the run for nearly a decade, police said on Friday.

Police said Hafeez Brohi had been involved as many as a dozen attacks against minority Shi’ites in southeastern Sindh province, including masterminding an attack at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in which more than 100 people were killed in 2017.

Security agencies suspected he had fled to Afghanistan, but received a tip-off that he was back in his home town of Shikarpur and eventually spotted him riding a motorcycle on Thursday.

Brohi and close aide Abdullah Brohi suffered fatal injuries in the ensuing shootout, Farooq Amjad, the assistant superintendent of police, told Reuters.

Police recovered a hand grenade and pistols from them.

Hundreds of people have been killed in attacks on Pakistan’s small Shi’ite community, heightening fears in the Sunni-dominated country of an escalation in sectarian bloodshed that has been a persistent threat for decades.