An unidentified gunman shot dead a Christian pastor on Monday in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, officials and church groups said, sparking fears of a return to sectarian fighting that once gripped the region.
Reverend Irianto Kongkoli was shot in the head when he was buying construction materials at a shop in the provincial capital of Palu, 1,650 km (1,030 miles) northeast of Jakarta, the Central Sulawesi government said.
"He had finished bargaining for some tiles when someone called him back into the store. When he entered, two shots were fired at the back of his head," said Jethan Towakit, head of the province's information bureau.
Central Sulawesi has been tense since the executions last month of three Christian militants over their role in Muslim-Christian violence that gripped the province's Poso region from 1998 to 2001. The Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), the country's leading umbrella group for Protestants, urged the government to thoroughly investigate the murder.
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