ISLAMABAD: Unknown gunmen shot dead senior Pakistani Taliban commander Asmatullah Shaheen along with his three comrades in their stronghold of North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border on Monday.

Shaheen was ambushed as he drove through Darga Mandi area, sources said. Three others in the vehicle also died on spot. The attackers managed to escape unscathed.

"Unidentified gunmen in another car shot and killed Shaheen as well as the driver and guards,” Reuters quoted a family member as saying.

No group has claimed responsibility for his killing. But sources suggest he could have been murdered for his rivalry with Khan Said Sajna, another Taliban commander.

Shaheen was a key member of the Taliban's council and was on the Pakistan army's list of 20 most wanted commanders. The government had announced Rs10 million bounty on his head in 2009.

He was briefly the Pakistani Taliban interim leader after its chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed last year. Shaheen earned infamy after he claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a religious procession in 2009 that 44 people in Karachi.

In December 2011, terrorists under his command had abducted 23 soldiers. Although seven soldiers managed to escape their custody but the remaining abductees were brutally killed.

