Islamabad, Jan 26: Amnesty International has expressed "deep concern" over the murder on Tuesday of a Pakistani author who has written controversial books critical of Muslim clerics.
The human rights group said that the murder of Fazal Wahab Wahab followed a series of measures by local authorities in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) "to curtail the Right of Freedom of Expression."
The London-based rights watchdog urged the NWFP government, led by Islamic fundamentalist parties, to bring the suspected perpetrators to justice.
Local police said that four men armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles shot dead Wahab while he was sitting in a shop in the northwestern hill resort of Mingora in Swat Valley late on Tuesday. The shopkeeper and his salesman also died.
A police officer in the provincial capital Peshawar, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the reason behind the murder could be Wahab's controversial writings.
In 2000, Wahab wrote a book "Mullah Ka Kirdar" (the role of the mullah) which was critical of clerics. The book was banned amid protests by the local population and members of the religious community.
The writer was declared a "non-believer" in a fatwa, or religious edict, issued by some local scholars about two years ago, police said.
Last year he wrote "Osama bin Laden and Taliban" in which he criticised the terror network al-Qaeda's leader and the ousted Afghan militia.
Bureau Report