Gunmen kill local leader of Pakistan’s pro-Taliban party

Peshawar: A police officer says gunmen on a motorcycle have killed a local leader of Pakistan’s pro-Taliban Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam party in an apparent assassination in the northwest before fleeing.

Local police chief Amjad Khan says Attaullah Shah was walking home after praying at a mosque in the city of Dera Ismail Khan when the assailants opened fire early Saturday.

No one has claimed responsibility and Khan says police have launched a manhunt for the assailants.

The latest attack comes months after Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, deputy leader of Pakistan’s Senate, narrowly escaped death when Daesh militants orchestrated a suicide attack in the country’s southwest, killing 28 people.

Dera Ismail Khan is located 300 kilometers south of the northwestern city of Peshawar.