MARDAN, Oct 2 Dr Mohammad Farooq Khan, a religious scholar and vice-chancellor of Swat Islamic University, was gunned down in his clinic here on Saturday. One of his assistants was also shot dead.

Police quoted eyewitnesses as saying that two armed men entered Dr Khan's clinic, in Baghdada locality, saying that they were patients. But as soon as they saw the doctor, they opened fire, killing him on the spot.

Dr Farooq's assistant, Mohammad Saleem, was shot dead by the assailants when he offered resistance. The assailants escaped.

(“One of the attackers fired several shots at Dr Farooq with his pistol. He died on the spot,” Waqif Khan, city police chief, told AFP by telephone.)

Dr Farooq was a psychiatrist by profession. He frequently took part in television talk shows at which he used to criticise militants and described suicide attacks as un-Islamic.

In his student days, he was an active member of the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba. Later on, he took part in a general election on a Jamaat-i-Islami ticket. However, he was expelled from the Jamaat after writing a book. For some time he also remained associated with the Tehrik-i-Insaf.

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Owais Ghani and Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti condemned the killing, terming it a great loss for the nation.