Islamabad: A local leader of Pakistan's Sunni sectarian outfit Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat was today shot dead by unknown gunmen in Rawalpindi, hours after another leader of the group escaped unhurt in an attack in Karachi.
Maulana Mazhar Siddiqui, the spokesperson of ASWJ which is believed to be linked with anti-Shia militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was killed in a targeted attack in Pir Wadhai area of Rawalpindi, police said.
Police official Wajid Mehmood said the killers escaped after the attack. ASWJ activists staged a protest in the city.
The attack came hours after ASWJ central president Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi escaped unhurt in a similar attack in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.
While Farooqi escaped unhurt in the attack that occurred late last night, three of his security guards were injured in the firing, an ASWJ spokesman said.
"Unknown men opened fire on the convoy of our leader at the Quaidabad bridge near Landhi but he remains safe," the spokesman said.
Nobody took responsibility of the two attacks but police said that they are apparently sectarian motivated.
The assaults came days after the Taliban attacks on Shia mosques in Peshawar and Shikarpur within a fortnight that killed more than 80 people.
