Prosecutors in Russia's volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan are investigating the murder of an imam in the city of Hasavyurt.
The 35-year-old imam was shot by an unknown gunman late on Monday near a mosque where he had led a service, prosecutors said. The imam died on his way to hospital, RIA Novosti reported.
In a similar incident, another imam was killed in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region in Russia's Urals in October.
Moscow announced an end to its decade-long antiterrorism campaign against separatists in Chechnya in April 2009, but militant clashes with police are still common in the North Caucasus.
According to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, more than half of all terrorist attacks in the region in 2010 have occurred in Dagestan.
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