QUETTA: A senior Pakistani police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan on Tuesday, police said.

Shah Nawaz Khan was a senior member of Balochistan’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which investigates all offences including terror cases and sectarian killings.

“He was killed in the early morning when he was going for a walk,” provincial police chief Rao Amin Hashim told AFP.

“Two young persons were riding a motorcycle and one of them opened fire on him. They escaped and he succumbed to his injuries before medical help could arrive,” Hashim added.

The police chief said it was not immediately clear who was responsible.

SP Shahnawaz Khan’s funeral was held in Satellite Town area later in the day and prayers were attended by high ranking police officials in addition to friends and family of the deceased.

An FIR was lodged against unknown assailants in the Satellite Town police station.

The slain police officer had been posted at key positions of the police department. Moreover, he was on the hit-list of various outlawed militant and separatist organisations due to his unyielding attitude towards them.

“He was posted in CID and was investigating many important cases. So I can’t really say at this time who the killers were,” said Rao Hashim.

Balochistan suffers from militancy linked to the Taliban, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency.

On April 29 the decapitated body of a British aid worker, Khalil Dale, was found in Quetta, almost four months after he was snatched by masked gunmen in the city. There was no claim for his murder.