Former Afghan commander killed in Pakistan

Police in Pakistan say a former Afghan guerrilla commander has been shot dead by unknown gunmen in Peshawar, northern Pakistan.

They say the commander, Maulvi Mohammad Siddique died on the spot when the gunmen opened fire on Sunday evening as he returned home from the market. The gunmen then fled.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mr. Siddique was a commander of the Hezb-e-Islami, the Afghan party of the former prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar during the Soviet occupation of Afghjanistan in the nineteen-eighties.

This was the second killing this month of an Afghan figure in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier province. Many Afghan refugees live there.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service