Sunni sectarian militant slain in northwest Pakistan

TANK, Pakistan, Mar 8 (Reuters) Gunmen killed a leading member of a banned Sunni Muslim militant group in northwest Pakistan today in a drive-by shooting that bore the hallmarks of a sectarian killing, police said.

Masroor Alam Alami, a member of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), was gunned down by two men on a motorbike as he walked to work in Dera Ismail Khan, a city 270 kms southwest of Islamabad.

''He had walked just a few yards from his house when the attackers sprayed him with bullets and fled on their bike,'' local police officer Bahawal Khan said, adding that all exit points from Dera Ismail Khan had been blocked.

Alami had been accused of killing rival Shi'ite Muslims in the past, but was released due to lack of evidence, police said.

The killing took place just two days ahead of the commemoration, mostly celebrated by Shi'ites, of Chehlum or Arbain, the end of a 40-day mourning period that marks the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson in 680 AD.

Thousands of people have been killed in retaliatory attacks by Sunni and Shi'ite militants in Pakistan since the 1980s.

Reuters BDP DB1344