MUZAFFARABAD: A former militant was gunned down in a mosque in Rawalakot, a town 130 kilometres south of Muzaffarabad, officials said on Friday, in what a top Islamist guerrilla leader termed a “targeted killing” - the third such death this year.

Police said Muhammad Riaz, also known as Abu Qasim Kashmiri, was shot dead by an “unknown” person at a mosque in Rawalakot, a town 130 kilometres south of Muzaffarabad.

Shehryar Sikandar, a senior police official in the area, said the prayer leader told police the assailant shot Riaz four times while wearing a motorcycle helmet. He said the investigation was ongoing.

Riaz originally belonged to the Surankot area of Illegally Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and reportedly migrated to AJK in the 1990s.