MIRPURKHAS: Gunmen in Mirpurkhas's Mali Colony area shot dead a doctor from the Ahmadi community, police and members of the community said Tuesday, in the latest attack on one of the country's most persecuted groups.

The assailants stormed Mubashar Ahmad Khosa's clinic on Monday evening.

“He was attending to patients at his clinic when two unknown assailants came in and fired at him repeatedly before fleeing on a motorbike,” a statement by a local community group said.

Zafarullah Dharejo, a senior police official, added that a third attacker kept watch outside.

Khosa, who was a well-known in the area, succumbed to his injuries on his way to hospital.

Dharejo said, “The doctor got a text message half an hour before the murder asking him to come out of his clinic.”

Locals of Mali Colony told Dawn that Khosa was a resident of Satellite Town and has been working in their area for a long time.

Also read: Three Ahmadis killed in Gujranwala

Khosa's body was taken to Civil Hospital Mirpurkhas for postmortem. However, no First Information Report (FIR) was registered.

The police officer said that in 2008, another Ahmadi doctor was gunned down in a similar way in the same city.

Earlier in July, at least three female members of the Ahmadi community, including two minors, had been killed in Gujranwala's People's Colony when a mob attacked and burnt five houses, a storage building and several vehicles over alleged blasphemy.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of the People's Colony Circle had said that the trouble started with an allegedly blasphemous post on Facebook by an Ahmadi youth.

Pakistan is believed to be home for the largest population of Ahmadis, however their standing in the nation has been questioned from the very start.

Ahmadis have been arrested in Pakistan for reading the Holy Quran, holding religious celebrations and having Quranic verses on rings or wedding cards. Four years ago, 86 Ahmadis were killed in two simultaneous attacks in Lahore.

In early 1953s the country was surrounded in a whirl of rumours that Ahmadis were manipulating Muslims to convert, especially the influential individuals and the ones which held official positions.