ISLAMABAD: Gunmen in northwest Attock district have shot dead a retired air force official who was a member of the country's Ahmadi minority, police said Thursday, bringing to seven the number of people killed in violence against the persecuted community this year.

The incident took place in Kamra, Attock district, around 64 kilometres north of the capital Islamabad on Wednesday, a spokesman for the community said.

“Latif Aalam Butt, a well-known Ahmadi was killed outside his house in Kamra, district Attock. He was returning home from his stationery store, when unknown assailants repeatedly fired at him,” Saleem ud Din said.

Local police also confirmed the incident, adding that Butt was 62. It was not immediately clear what role he had served in the air force.

“The victim's son filed an application here at the police station today,” local police official Qasim Ali told news agency AFP.

“According to his son's account, the victim owned a stationery shop in Saddar market and was returning home from his shop during the incident.”

Butt's neighbour reported the incident and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the local hospital, Ali quoted the son as saying.

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Ahmadis are today one of the most persecuted minority groups in Pakistan. They are frequently attacked, accused of blasphemy and subjected to discrimination in education and the workplace.

Gunmen shot dead an Ahmadi doctor in the southern city of Mirpurkhas last month.

In July, an angry mob torched an Ahmadi neighbourhood in the city of Gujranwala, killing a woman and two girls after a local Ahmadi boy was accused of blasphemy.

The worst attack in recent times came in 2010 when an assault on Ahmadi places of worship in Lahore killed nearly 100 people.