Gunmen yesterday shot dead a Pakistani Olympic boxer in the volatile southwest that borders Afghanistan and Iran, police said.

He was killed in Quetta, the capital of oil and gas-rich Baluchistan province which is in the throes of sectarian violence and a separatist insurgency.

"Two gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on Abrar Hussain, the former Olympian and chief of the local sports board, as he came out of his office," local police official Hamid Shakeel told AFP.

Hussain represented Pakistan three times at the Olympics in 1984, 1988 and 1992 and won gold at the 1990 Asian Games.