QUETTA, Dec 29: Police surgeon Dr Syed Baqir Shah, who had conducted the post-mortem on the bodies of five foreigners killed by security forces in the infamous Kharotabad shooting, was gunned down here on Thursday. He had been facing death threats.

Police said Dr Shah was going home from Bolan Medical College Hospital when two armed men on a motorcycle ambushed his car in the Sabzal road area. He was seriously injured and died on way to the hospital. “Dr Baqir Shah was hit by four bullets in the chest which caused his instant death,” hospital sources said.

“The motive behind the killing was not known. We will touch all aspects in investigation,” police officials said.

Dr Shah was the main forensic investigator of the Kharotabad incident in which five unarmed Chechen and Russian nationals, three of them women, were killed by security forces on May 17 this year. His report confirmed that the five had died of bullet wounds.

Police and Frontier Corps claimed that they were suicide bombers who were killed in a blast near an FC checkpost in the area.

Dr Shah had rejected their claim. He had earlier been attacked by some armed men during a judicial inquiry into the incident.

According to a foreign news agency, Dr Shah had spoken about receiving death threats from unknown people at a press conference earlier this year after he resisted pressure to fudge the post-mortem reports.

A judicial commission which determined that the foreigners were unarmed sacked two police officials.

Sariab police have registered a case and started an investigation into the killing of Dr Shah.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani condemned the killing asked the police chief to set up a high-level inquiry committee.

He expressed dismay that adequate security had not been provided to the surgeon and directed that the killers must be arrested immediately.