Qari Ilyas Zubair, the former leader of a militant Pakistani extremist group has been shot dead in Karachi by unknown assailants.

Police officials told Press TV correspondent that gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Qari Ilyas, secretary general of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Qari Shafiq, another member of SSP, in the Teen-Hatti area of Karachi near the Jamshed Quarters Police Station on Friday night.

Both were rushed to a local hospital, where they died of their wounds.

Tension gripped the city following the incident.

Police officials said that while the exact nature of the attack has not been determined, it appears to have been an act of sectarian violence.

Sipah-e-Sahaba -- or 'Army of the Friends of the Prophet' - has been known to be responsible for relentless attacks on Pakistani Shia Muslims at their mosques and gatherings.

Shia Muslims, Christians and other religious minorities are frequently attacked in Pakistan by violent sectarian Sunni groups.

Investigators believe that the same Sunni extremists were behind the kidnapping of the Iranian commercial attach? in Pakistan, Heshmatollah Atharzadeh, in November 2008. He has not yet been released.

Such extremist groups are believed to receive funding from Saudi Arabia and UAE-based Wahhabi donors.

MVZ/TG/DT