Three assailants with assault rifles attacked a mosque belonging to a small Muslim sect in eastern Pakistan early on Friday, killing at least seven people and wounding 20 others, the police said.

The attack on the mosque belonging to Ahmadiyya sect happened in the village of Mong, about 400 km northeast of Multan, a main city in the eastern Punjab province, said Mohammed Arif, an area police officer.

"So far we only know that three men riding on a motorcycle suddenly came in the village Friday morning. Two of them went inside the mosque and started firing," he said.

Arshad Nawaz, a doctor at a government hospital in the area, confirmed that they had received seven bodies and 20 injured, but gave no other details.

The Ahmadiyya sect was founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam [Images] Ahmad, a 19th century Indian religious leader who claimed to be a prophet seeking Islam's renewal. The religious group differs with other mainstream Muslim groups over the
definition of Islam's founder Mohammed being the "final" prophet.

Ahmadiyyas have been persecuted and ostracised in many countries, including mainly Sunni Muslim Pakistan, where a law passed in 1970s forbids them to call themselves Muslim.