PESHAWAR: Gunmen on Tuesday shot dead a Pakistani journalist working with the Voice of America's Pashto language radio service as he prayed at a mosque in the northwest of the country, police said.

Mukarram Khan Aatif, a 43-year-old correspondent with Deewa radio, was attacked at a mosque near his home in Shabqadar town, Khyber Pakhtunkhaw province, 30 kilometers north of Peshawar.

“The two attackers came on a motorbike, fired bullets at Aatif in the mosque and escaped. He suffered bullet wounds to the head,” local police officer Zahir Shah told AFP.

Another police official confirmed the incident.

“Aatif was hit in the head and rushed to a hospital in Peshawar. The prayer leader was also injured,” said district police chief Nisar Khan Marwat.

Rahim Jan, a senior doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar said Aatif had succombed to his injuries.

According to press watchdog Reporters Without Borders, Pakistan was the deadliest country for the media in 2011 with at least eight journalists killed in connection with their work.