ISLAMABAD: Unidentified gunmen on Sunday shot dead two members of the minority Sikh community in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, police said.
The assailants riding on motorbikes shot Ranjit Singh, 38, and Suljeet Singh, 42, in Sarband area, the Peshawar police said in a statement. The deceased owned spices shops in Batta Tal bazaar.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
"The police have collected evidence from the site," the statement said. "CCTV cameras in surrounding areas are also being checked."
A search operation was underway in the vicinity to arrest the assailants.
Peshawar Capital City Police Office Ijaz Khan later visited Gurdwara Jogan Shah in Peshawar and offered his condolences to representatives of the Sikh community.
"Sarband incident is a cowardly act," the police statement quoted him as saying. "[We] won't let the anti-Pakistan forces succeed in their ulterior motives."
Sikhs are a small minority in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. At least 500 Sikh families lived in Peshawar and its surrounding northwestern regions, according to community estimates.
However, hundreds of Sikhs have migrated in recent years to other parts of Pakistan or neighbouring India out of a fear of militant attacks and targeted killings.
KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan condemned the incident, saying it was a "conspiracy to sabotage peace and interfaith harmony in the city."
"The elements involved in this heinous murder cannot escape the law," Khan said. He directed the KP inspector-general to take immediate measures for the arrest of the perpetrators.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the killing and said he had ordered a high-level inquiry into it.
"Pakistan belongs to all its people," PM Sharif said on Twitter. "The killers will be arrested & meted out exemplary punishment. My most sincere sympathies to the bereaved families."