Christian priest shot dead in Pakistan: police

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Christian priest in the central Pakistani city of Khanewal, police said.

The priest, Mukhtar Masih, was headed to the railway station to catch a train for Lahore when the gunmen opened fire, Khanewal's police chief Jamil Ahmed told reporters on Monday.

He said the priest was hit by three bullets and died on the spot.

"It is premature to speculate on the motive behind the murder," Jamil said.

Christians and non-Muslim minorities form around three percent of Muslim Pakistan's 145 million population.

The two communities mainly live in harmony except for isolated incidents of violence which Christian rights groups blame on Muslim extremists.

At least 16 people were killed in an attack on a church in Bahawalpur in central Punjab province in October 2001, soon after Pakistan abandoned the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban government in Afghanistan.