A Presbyterian pastor who survived an attack in September was gunned down by an unidentified assailant outside his home in front of his daughter last week in Pakistan, his family said.

The Rev. Kamran Salamat of Gujranwala was about to take his 16-year-old daughter to college on Friday (Dec. 5) when an unidentified motorcyclist opened fire on him with a pistol, hitting him in the right wrist, left ear and lower abdomen, said the victim's brother-in-law, the Rev. Shahzad Salman. Pastor Salamat was 45.

“My brother-in-law succumbed to his injuries at the hospital three hours later,” Pastor Salman told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

The attacker fled the scene unharmed, he added.

Pastor Salamat’s body was buried in the presence of a large number of Christians on Saturday (Dec. 6). He was a resident of Islam Colony in Gujranwala District, Punjab Province.

Pastor Salman said the deceased, father to three minor children, had previously been shot in the leg in Islamabad in September.

“Rev. Kamran was a committed missionary, but he never shared the details of his mission work with his family,” said Pastor Salman, who is also an attorney. “In fact, when he was attacked in September, he refused to pursue the case and told the police that he had forgiven his unknown assailant. Even after the incident, he never revealed to us who was threatening his life.”

The late pastor moved his family to Gujranwala after the shooting in Islamabad and was running a sewing center for poor Christian women.

“We are absolutely clueless as to who was behind the attacks on Rev. Kamran,” Pastor Salman said. “The Gujranwala police are making efforts to trace the gunman from CCTV footage gathered from the spot, but so far he hasn’t been identified.”

He added that they suspected the assailant was accompanied by two other men.  

Sources said Pastor Salamat had made several outreaches to lawless tribal regions in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where he preached the gospel to Afghan and Pakistani Muslim tribesmen.

“It’s quite possible that he was martyred due to his missionary work,” a church leader said. “The truth will surface only after the police arrest the assailant.”

Condemning the assassination, the Rev. Reuben Qamar, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, demanded a thorough investigation and immediate arrest of the assailants.

“We mourn the heinous killing of Pastor Kamran Salamat, a faithful servant of God,” Qamar posted on Facebook. “His death is not only a personal loss but another wound to the Christians in Pakistan. Even in our grief, we remain steadfast in hope, rejoicing in Jesus’s victory over the darkness, sharing peace and love to this hostile world.”

Pastor Naeem Nasir, a prominent Pentecostal preacher, said Pastor Salamat was killed to stop him from proclaiming Christ.

“Extremists had been pursuing him and threatening him everywhere he went,” Pastor Nasir stated on Facebook, citing a phone call with the mother-in-law of the slain pastor. “He moved from Islamabad to Gujranwala, but they were still not satisfied. They wanted to stop his passion for preaching the gospel.”

Pastor Salamat’s murder took place three months after a Catholic was shot dead and another was wounded as they traveled to a pilgrimage site in Punjab Province. Afzal Masih of Samnabad locality of Lahore in Punjab Province and his cousin Harris Tariq Masih were among a group of Catholics who were in a passenger van en route to the annual Feast of the Nativity of Mary shrine in Mariamabad, Sheikhpura District, when they were attacked by Muslims with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, said Aurangzeb Peter, a member of the traveling group.

Pakistan, whose population is more than 96 percent Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.