| DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Gunmen shot dead a Shia and a Sunni in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, raising the toll from sectarian violence in a remote town in the last week to seven, said police. Police said that Niaz Ahmed (45), a teacher from the minority Shia community, was shot dead by unknown assailants on a motorcycle when he was going to school in Dera Ismail Khan. Around 50 minutes later, gunmen on a motorcycle killed 40-year-old Maulana Farooq Ahmed, a Sunni cleric, in the same city, said local police officials. Reuters reported that Ahmed was a member of the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The officials said that in another incident, gunmen injured Hafiz Ishaq, another SSP activist. “These killings and attacks all appear to be sectarian-linked,” said a senior police official. |