Peshawar: A Pashto theatre actress was shot dead by three gunmen after she refused to go with them for a private event in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.

According to police, the three men have already been identified and police personnel are actively searching for them.

The gunmen broke into actress Sumbul's house on Saturday evening and opened fire at her when she refused to accompany them to a private event. They fled the scene after killing her, Dawn reported.

The singer succumbed to her injuries before reaching the nearby Mardan Medical Complex. The body was handed over to the family after postmortem.

The police registered a case on the complaint of the actress' grandfather Ameer Bahadar against the three accused and launched a probe into the incident.

Sources said one of the accused, Naeem, was a former employee of police department, while the other, Jehangir, was the former husband of slain Pashto singer Ghazala Javed.

Jehangir was handed down death sentence on two counts and Rs 70 million fine by the Swat district and sessions judge in December 2013 in the killing case of Ghazala and her father Javed Khan. However, he was acquitted by the Peshawar High Court in May 2014 after he reached a compromise with Ghazala's family.