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PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - A member of a banned Sunni Muslim extremist group was killed in an apparent sectarian attack in restive northwest Pakistan on Monday, police and witnesses said.
Abu Khan, an activist from Sepah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, was near his shop on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan when two gunmen opened fire and escaped on their motorbike, witnesses told AFP.
Abu Khan and a boy in the street were wounded. Both were taken to hospital where Abu Khan died, local police official Rasheed Khan said.
'He was an active member of Sapah-e-Sahaba,' the police official said. 'It seems to be a sectarian killing,' he added.
Dera Ismail Khan, a gateway to the Taliban tribal stronghold of South Waziristan, is a flashpoint for violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
Monday's attack was the third deadly shooting in the town in nine days. There have been no arrests so far in connection with the killings.
Shiites account for around 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million. The groups usually coexist peacefully but outbreaks of sectarian violence involving militants from the two communities have claimed more than 4,000 lives across Pakistan since the late 1980s.
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