This is why we don’t hear much about Muslim moderates working to reform Islam:

Police in northern Pakistan say unidentified attackers have shot dead a writer whose work was viewed as critical of fundamentalist Islam.

The 40-year-old writer, Fazal Wahab, was shot at a local shop.

Fatwas, or religious edicts, declaring his work un-Islamic had been issued by senior clerical figures after the publication of two books challenging the role of mullahs.

Police say three or four gunmen burst into the shop in the town of Mingora, in North-West Frontier Province, where Mr Wahab was sitting.

Asylum bid

The gunmen opened fire indiscriminately, killing Mr Wahab and the shop owner on the spot.

A teenage shop assistant died on his way to hospital.