A volunteer American cardiologist was shot dead in Pakistan on Monday, a member of his minority Ahmadi community said, the latest attack on a group which says it is Muslim but whose religion is rejected by the state, Reuters reported.
Mehdi Ali was shot while he took his five-year-old son and a cousin to a graveyard in Punjab province at dawn to pray, said Salim ud Din, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community.
"He came here just one or two days ago to work at our heart hospital, to serve humanity and for his country," said Din. "Two persons came on motor-bikes. They shot 11 bullets in him."
After moving abroad in 1996, Pakistan-born Ali returned to do voluntary work at a state-of-the-art heart hospital built by the Ahmadi community in the eastern town of Rabwah.
The 51-year-old moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he founded an Ahmadi center and raised funds for medical charities in Pakistan, said Din.
He is survived by a wife and three young sons, said Din, according to Reuters.
"We are waiting for an application from the family after which we will start investigations," said local police officer Ahmed Ali.
Pakistani law doesn't believe the Ahmadis to be Muslims since they believe there was a prophet after Muhammad. However, Ahmadis insist that they are.
"Ahmadis have often been jailed or lynched for blasphemy for things like offering Islamic prayers or reading the Koran," Reuters reported.
"Ali's killing follows the fatal shooting of a 65-year-old Ahmadi man last week. A teenage gunman killed Khalil Ahmad in police custody after the grandfather was arrested on blasphemy charges for objecting to stickers denouncing his religion."
According to an annual report produced by the Ahmadi community in Pakistan, seven Ahmadis were killed and 16 survived attempted assassinations last year.
Others were driven from their homes or had businesses seized.
