Pakistani Sunni leader and Member of Parliament Azam Tariq was among five people killed in an attack on his car yesterday on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad, police and party officials said. "Yes, it was Maulana Azam Tariq," said a sobbing Rashid Mehmood Faruqi, Tariq's personal secretary and a fellow member of his Sunni Muslim group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). "The others were his driver and colleagues." Party workers were also in tears at the Islamabad hospital where Tariq's body was taken, and said they had seen the body of their leader. They said Tariq's bodyguards were among the dead. Inspector General of Police Mohammad Akram also confirmed Tariq's death. "I had my doubts initially, but three or four respectable people who knew him have identified the body," he told reporters at the hospital. Akram said three gunmen opened fire on the vehicle at a toll station on the main highway to Pakistani Kashmir, killing all five of its occupants. The killing comes after a spate of sectarian violence in Pakistan, culminating in the the worst attack in years in July when suspected 'Sunni Muslim militants' sprayed gunfire on worshippers in a Shi'ite mosque in Quetta, killing over 50. On Friday, six Shi'ites were killed in an attack on a bus in the southern port city of Karachi. Hundreds of Shi'ites burned tyres and threw stones in the city on Saturday to protest the killings. Rashid said Tariq was traveling in that car on his way to Islamabad to attend today's session of parliament. The car's back and side windows were smashed, and there were several bullet holes in the car itself. An SSP member said 70 to 80 bullets had been fired at the car, many hitting the head and upper bodies of the victims. In an interview in February, Tariq said he had been unfairly branded a terrorist by the Western media. Tariq was born in Punjab on March 15, 1962. He learnt the Qur'an by heart and went on to study at religious seminaries in Faisalabad and Karachi before setting up SSP in 1986. In 1997 Tariq was injured in a remote-controlled bomb attack in the city of Lahore in which 23 people, including an SSP leader, were killed. The attack was blamed on Shi'ite radicals. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Azam Tariq.