PESHAWAR: Gunmen shot dead a Christian priest and wounded his colleague in an ambush in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar today, police said.
The unknown attackers opened fire on a car carrying the cleric, William Siraj, and his colleague home from church in the city’s Chamkani area, police officer Haroon Khan told Reuters.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting. The region has seen as surge of militant attacks in recent days, many of them claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group which associates itself with the Afghan Taliban.
Officials did not name Siraj’s church. His colleague was out of danger and being treated, Mohammad Asim, a spokesman for the city’s Lady Reading hospital said.
In 2013, at least 78 people were killed in a suicide attack outside an Anglican church in Peshawar after Sunday Mass.