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looking for a suspicious gesture, or a bulge beneath the clothes that hints at a hidden gun or a bomb. Earlier this month, the gurdwara in Peshawar's crowded Old City opened its doors to worshippers for the first time in 73 years. The reopening was celebrated by Pakistan's tiny Sikh minority, but security is a constant concern. On Friday, a Sikh leader and provincial lawmaker was shot and killed outside his home in a remote area in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province, some 140 kilometres (86 miles) from Peshawar. The murder of Sardar Suran Singh devastated the Sikh community and heightened their fears of militant attacks. It also added to human rights activists' despair over rising violence against religious minorities in Pakistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting of Sardar Suran Singh, but police disputed their claim, blaming the shooting on political rivalry and saying they had arrested the culprit. There was no response from the Taliban, who often make unsubstantiated claims. Peshawar is a deeply conservative city at the foot of the mountainous Khyber Pass - once a popular route for traders and tourists travelling to nearby Afghanistan, now the focus of an extremist insurgency. Militants have attacked Peshawar schools, killing children as they studied, bombed buses of government workers and attacked Christians in their churches. The newly-opened gurdwara has a 24-hour Sikh security detail as well as police guards, but their Muslim neighbours believe an attack is inevitable. "Security is crucial... for the people who want to come here for prayers without any fear," said Gurpal Singh, security chief for Peshawar's Sikh community. Gohar Iqbal, a bookseller who works at a busy stall opposite the temple was certain the building would be targeted by militants. "We are worrying because of the children if something happens," he said, gesturing to the white cement building that houses a girls' high school, which abuts the gurdwara. Few in this overwhelmingly Muslim neighbourhood welcomed the gurdwara's reopening. Apart from the security risks, many simply do not want Sikhs in their midst. Most Sikhs that lived in the area and attended the gurdwara left when it closed in the 1940s. It is not known how many Sikhs live in Pakistan today. The vast majority migrated to India in 1947, the year Pakistan was created as a homeland for Muslims of the subcontinent. The CIA Factbook estimates that 3.6 percent of Pakistan's 180 million people are non-Muslims, including Sikhs, Christians and Hindus. Sikhs are among the smallest minorities. They are easily identifiable because of their tightly wound and often colourful turbans, and because they share the surname Singh, for men, and Kaur for women. Many of the Sikhs living in Pakistan are internally displaced, having fled their traditional homes in Pakistan's tribal regions as the threat posed by militants increased. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/56ad57f0245ce8a9c78d0b0aa7f99244