ISLAMABAD A former head of Pakistan army's elite commando force, retired Major General Ameer Faisal Alvi, was gunned down along with his driver by unknown assailants in a drive-by-shooting incident, which preliminary investigations suggest could be the work of militants.

Retired Major Gen Alvi, who commanded the Special Services Group (SSG) during the first major assault on foreign and local militants in South Waziristan in 2004, fell to the assailants' bullets not far away from his residence in the outskirts of Islamabad.

There have been several well-targeted killing of members of the police and other security forces since Pakistan launched the military operation in the tribal areas, but senior officials say this is the first incident in which a high-profiled military officer once directly linked to the anti-terror operation has been gunned down by suspected militants.

He was on his way to Islamabad from his Baharia Town residence in Rawalpindi when the assailants blocked his Corolla near the PWD colony, and sprayed bullets from two different directions, police said. So intense was the firing that, according to the post-mortem report, Major Gen Alvi received eight bullets, including three to his head, with the driver being hit by another seven bullets. After blocking the car as it slowed down at a speed-breaker, the armed men fired several rounds from the front and from one of the sides, killing both the general and his driver instantly, a senior police official told Dawn.

Several minutes later the military officials and police arrived at the scene to find bodies of both the retired army general and his driver lying in a pool of blood. The bodies were immediately removed to a hospital for autopsy, and later shifted to the CMH in Rawalpindi. Simultaneously, both the military and police started their separate preliminary investigations on the premise that it was a case of targeted killing.

The Crime Investigating Department of police was also looking into the possibility that the banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi might be involved in the assassination, an official said. Other militant groups directly or otherwise linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are also being considered as suspects, but officials said so far they have not been able to find any definite clues to pin the blame on any particular group or individual.

Major General Alvi was regarded as one of the celebrated members of the SSG, who spearheaded several prominent commando operations. He acquired particular fame during a series of security operations in Angoor Adda, Wana, and other parts of South Waziristan, during which numerous Arabs, Uzbeks and Chechens were killed and arrested along with Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.

Official sources said one of the most prominent operations of the SSG conducted during his tenure was against Abdullah Mehsud's men, who had kidnapped two Chinese engineers.

One of the Chinese was freed by the commandos while the other one died as Mehsud militants used him as a human shield during the assault on their hideout.

Maj Gen Alvi retired in 2006, and was currently manning his own private firm dealing with communication technology. Despite having a past involvement in the anti-terror operation against militants, he never had any extra security for himself, and officials said the assailants easily escaped after gunning him down in broad daylight.