Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - A Palestinian scholar has been shot dead by two assailants in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, as he was heading to a mosque for dawn prayers, local police said.

Fadi al-Batsh, a 35-year-old Palestinian academic, was instantly killed by the unknown gunmen in a residential neighbourhood of the capital on Saturday.

Al-Batsh's father told Al Jazeera that he accuses Israel's intelligence agency Mossad of being behind his son's killing and called on the Malaysian authorities to look into who carried out the "assasination" as soon as possible.

Both the Islamic Jihad movement and Hamas, the governing party in the Gaza Strip, claim that al-Batsh belonged to their organisations.

In a statement on Twitter, Hamas described al-Batsh as a "young Palestinian scholar" from Jabalia in the Gaza Strip. It noted that the "martyr" was a "distinguished scientist who has widely contributed to the energy sector".

Palestinian websites identified al-Batsh as a relative of a senior official in the Gaza branch of the Islamic Jihad group.

According to police chief Datuk Seri Mansor Lazim, the two gunmen had waited for al-Batsh in front of a residential building in Setapak district for almost 20 minutes, and fired at least 10 bullets, four of which instantly killed him.

Al-Batsh was shot in the "body and head", the police said, adding that they are investigating all angles including "terrorism".

Palestinian Ambassador to Malaysia, Anwar H. Al Agha, was quoted by the New Straits Times newspaper as saying the victim was a second imam at his mosque. He had been reportedly living in Malaysia for 10 years.

Agha said Imam Fadi was supposed to have left for a conference in Turkey on Saturday. He was survived by his wife and three children.

*Agencies