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Senior Pakistani police officer shot dead: police

08 May 2012 18:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A senior Pakistani police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan on Tuesday, police said, APA reports quoting AFP.

Shah Nawaz Khan was a senior member of Baluchistanâ€™s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which investigates all offences including terror cases and sectarian killings.

"He was killed in the early morning when he was going for a walk," provincial police chief Rao Amin Hashim told AFP.

"Two young persons were riding a motorcycle and one of them opened fire on him. They escaped and he succumbed to his injuries before medical help could arrive," Hashim added.

The police chief said it was not immediately clear who was responsible.

Baluchistan suffers from Islamist militancy linked to the Taliban, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency.

"He was posted in CID and was investigating many important cases. So I canâ€™t really say at this time who the killers were," Hashim said.

Other police officials in Baluchistan have said they have been threatened by Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has orchestrated violent attacks on minority Shiites and claimed responsibility for Tuesdayâ€™s killing.

"He (Khan) was actively engaged against us. We will not spare those who kill our people," a spokesman for the group said late Tuesday.

On April 29 the decapitated body of a British aid worker, Khalil Dale, was found in Quetta, almost four months after he was snatched by masked gunmen in the city.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed since Baluch rebels rose up in 2004, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from oil, gas and mineral resources in the region.