Mir Wais was gunned down Monday in Lashkargah, the capital of insurgency-hit Helmand province, deputy governor Moheedin Khan said.

The victim was an engineer with the Brac (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), which builds schools, roads and clinics in rural areas of the poverty-stricken country.

Details about the dead could not be known.

The Afghan interior ministry said the area had been sealed off by intelligence agents and the police.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but similar killings in the past have been blamed on remnants of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime.

In April, three women linked to the same organisation were found stoned to death in the northern province of Baghlan with a letter written by another Islamic militant group.