PESHAWAR: A police officer says gunmen on a motorcycle have killed a local leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam party in an apparent assassination in the northwest before fleeing.

Local police chief Amjad Khan says Attaullah Shah was walking home after praying at a mosque in the city of Dera Ismail Khan when the assailants opened fire early Saturday.

No one has claimed responsibility and Khan says police have launched a manhunt for the assailants.

The latest attack comes months after Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, deputy leader of Pakistan's Senate, narrowly escaped death when Islamic State militants orchestrated a suicide attack in the country's southwest, killing 28 people.

Dera Ismail Khan is located 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of Peshawar.