Gunmen assassinate pro-Taliban Muslim leader

A pro-Taliban Muslim leader, Doctor Khalid Mehmood Soomro, has been killed by unknown gunmen after he was shot during an attack on Saturday, November 29 in southern Pakistan.

Doctor Khalid Mehmood Soomro, a leader from the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) party in southern Sindh province was offering his morning prayers when the gunmen stormed the mosque and shot him dead.

According to a report by AFP, police say two armed men entered the mosque in Sukkur town, some 500 kilometres north of Karachi, the provincial capital and the country’s commercial hub and fired 11 shots. Four of those shots hit Khalid Soomro who died on the spot.

The killing prompted shops and businesses to close in parts of southern Sindh as small groups of party members took to the streets across the country in protest.

A JUI-F party spokesman said Soomro had received death threats and had been attacked several times in the past.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but JUI-F members have previously been targeted by the Pakistani Taliban, even though the party leaders have for several times acted as negotiators between the militants and Pakistan government.

Doctor Khalid Mehmood Soomro served as a member of Pakistan’s senate (upper house) from 2006 to 2012.