Afghan Cleric Killed In Militant Attack

3 July 2005 -- A pro-government Islamic scholar, Mawlavi Mohammad Nabi Masah, died today after being shot by suspected Islamic militants in southern Afghanistan.
Police said that they believed Taliban militants were behind the attack.

Mawlavi Mohammad Nabi Masah, a member of Afghanistan's influential Shi'ite religious body, the Ulama Council, was
leaving his home 10 kilometers east of the southern city of Kandahar in his car when he was shot.

In late May, gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead another member of the council, prominent anti-Taliban cleric Mawlavi
Abdullah Fayaz, in Kandahar.

A suicide bombing of a mosque in the city during a memorial service for Fayaz on 1 June killed 20 people.

(Reuters)