Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan - Gunmen shot dead two men from rival Muslim sects in northwest Pakistan Tuesday, raising the toll from sectarian violence in a remote town in the last week to seven, police said.
Niaz Ahmed, 45, a teacher from the minority Shiite community, was shot dead by unknown assailants on a motorcycle when he was going to school in tense Dera Ismail Khan, they said.
Separately, gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead 40-year-old Maulana Farooq Ahmed, a cleric from the majority Sunni sect, near his home in the same city and fled after the killing, local police officials said.
In another incident gunmen injured Hafiz Ishaq, an activist of the outlawed Sunni extremist organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, they said.
"These killings and attacks all appear to be sectarian-linked. There is tension throughout the town," senior police official Hammad Abid told AFP.
Police looking for the suspects have raided several places in the city but no arrests have been made so far, he added.
A Shiite rickshaw driver was killed on Monday, while four others from rival sects were shot dead in similar attacks during the last week.
Sectarian violence between Pakistan's Sunni and Shiite communities has claimed more than 4,000 lives since the late 1980s. Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's 160 million Sunni-dominated population.