MINGORA, Jan 23: Unidentified assailants shot dead three people, including a writer whose work was viewed as critical of Osama Bin Laden and former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The 40-year-old Afghan writer, Fazal Wahab, who was, reportedly, engaged in a hostile debate with some pro-Taliban Ulemas, was living as a refugee in Swat, NWFP.

The Swat police said three or four gunmen burst into the shop, located in a busy local Bazar, where Mr Wahab was sitting. The assailants opened fire indiscriminately, killing him and the owner of the shop on the spot, while a teenaged shop assistant died on his way to the hospital.

Prominent Ulema of Deoband and Wahabi schools of thought had issued Fatwas( religious edicts) against him, declaring his work as un-Islamic, after the publication of his two books challenging the role of mullahs, Osama Bin Laden and Taliban.

However, it was not clear whether Ulema had called for his death through their fatwas or he was killed due to provocation.—PPI