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ISLAMABAD (AP) — A suspected militant on Thursday shot and killed a lawyer from Pakistan's minority Ahmadi sect over blasphemy allegations in eastern Punjab province, police said.
The attacker was arrested shortly after killing the lawyer, Saleem Latif, in the town of Nankana, local police official Nazim Alid said. Latif was from a prominent Ahmadi family and was a cousin of Pakistan's 1979 Nobel physics laureate Abdus Salam.
"We quickly arrested the attacker who claims that Saleem Latif was involved in blasphemy," he said.
Hours after the incident, a spokesman for the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. The spokesman, Ali Bin Sufyan, said in a statement that Latif was killed for adhering to the beliefs of the Ahmadi sect.
The Ahmadi faith was established in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who followers believe was a prophet.
Pakistan's declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974 and they are often targeted by Sunni militant groups.
In 2015, thousands of Sunni Muslims marking the Prophet Muhammad's birthday torched a worship place of the Ahmadi sect in another town in Punjab, wounding several people and forcing others to flee for their lives.
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