SUKKUR: Armed men kidnapped a prayer leader (Pesh Imam) along with two of his fellow tribesmen from a mosque and opened fire on them in nearby fields killing him and another victim on Saturday night.

Residents of Dal Mahar village and officials at the Chak police station of Shikarpur district said that the assailants stormed their way into a mosque and took away Qari Umar Farooq Mahar, Mohammad Khan Mahar and Mohammad Sulaiman Mahar at gun point.

They said that the armed men took the hostages to nearby fields, shot them and sped away.

Qari Umar Farooq and Mohammad Khan died on the spot and Mohammad Sulaiman suffered critical wounds in the firing, they added.

The villagers linked the incidents to an old enmity between Mahars and Jatois living in the area.

Police, with the help of the villagers, transported the victims to the Lakhi Ghulam Shah Taluka Hospital, where Sulaiman Mahar was admitted for treatment. The two bodies were handed over to the heirs after a postmortem examination at the hospital.

An FIR of the incident was yet to be registered at the Chak police station.