PESHAWAR: A Lieutenant Colonel of the Pakistan Army was shot dead when unknown assailants targeted him near Ring Road in Peshawar's Hayatabad area on Friday.

SP Peshawar Cantt Kashif Zulfiqar told DawnNews that Lt Col Tariq Ghafoor, resident of Hayatabad Phase VI area, was on his way to a nearby mosque to offer Friday prayers when he was targeted by unknown armed men.

SP Kashif further said that the attack might be result of some personal enmity.

Spokesperson for the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group, Muhammad Khorasani, claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to journalists.

Lt Col Tariq Ghafoor was posted in Peshawar and was undergoing postgraduate studies at a government university, said a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The deceased was the son of Maj-Gen (retd) Fazal Ghafoor, who also served as Inspector General Frontier Corps between 1994-1997 and later as a diplomat, after retiring from military service.

Hayatabad is a posh suburb of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's capital city Peshawar on the south-western fringe of the city.