QUETTA: The president of the Ittehad Ulema Afghanistan, Maulana Sheikh Abdullah Zakiri, was gunned down here on Wednesday.

According to sources, he was playing an important role for initiating negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government. Men on a motorcycle opened fire on his car on Sabzal Road, police said.

“Maulana Zakiri was hit by a bullet in his chest,” hospital sources said. He was around 84.

His son, Abdul Qayyum, took him to the Bolan Medical College Hospital, but he had already died.

Mr Qayyum said the attack took place near Uzbek Chowk.

“Sheikh Zakiri was a prominent religious leader of Afghanistan and chief of an organisation of ulema from the country,” Balochistan Home Secretary Syed Asadur Rehman Gilani told Dawn.

The attackers escaped, but police were raiding various places to arrest them after getting some information about them.

Maulana Zakiri had close relations with the Taliban and had fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

“One group has claimed responsibility for killing Sheikh Zakiri,” police sources said.

Two leading Taliban leaders, Mullah Noorullah Hotak and Mullah Abdul Malik, were killed in Quetta in December.

The Taliban claim that more than 10 of their leaders have been killed in the city by unknown people during the past two years.

Some of the deceased were making efforts for reconciliation between the Taliban and the Karzai government.