Police in southern Pakistan have shot dead a doctor accused of blasphemy, drawing condemnation from human rights groups.

Dr Shahnawaz Kanbhar was killed "just by chance" in shootout with officers who did not know it was him, according to a local police chief in Sindh province Niaz Khoso

Dr Kanbhar had gone into hiding on Tuesday after being accused of insulting Islam’s prophet Muhammad and sharing blasphemous content on social media.

He is the second blasphemy suspect in Pakistan to be shot dead in the space of a week.

According to a police report, officers in the city of Mirpur Khas had tried to stop two men riding on a motorcycle on Wednesday, in order to search their vehicle.

Instead of complying, the report says, one of the men opened fire. A gun battle ensued, in which Dr Kanbhar was killed.

It was only after the shootout that officers learned that the man they had shot was Dr Kanbhar, according to Khoso, the local police chief. The second person on the motorcycle escaped.

Another police official, Khas Asad Chaudhry, told BBC Urdu that Dr Kanbhar was accidentally shot by his companion on the motorcycle.

However, a relative of Dr Kanbhar has told BBC Urdu that he was killed in a "fake encounter" - something which local police deny.

The Interior Minister for Sindh province Zia-ul-Hasan Linjar has ordered an independent inquiry into Dr Kanbhar's death.

The killing of Dr Kanbhar comes a week after an officer opened fire inside a police station in the south-western city of Quetta, fatally wounding another suspect who was being held on accusations of blasphemy.

The deaths have drawn strong condemnation from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which said it was “gravely concerned by the alleged extrajudicial killing of two people accused of blasphemy.”

“This pattern of violence in cases of blasphemy, in which law enforcement personnel are allegedly involved, is an alarming trend,” it said in a statement issued on Friday