MAKHACHKALA, March 10 (RIA Novosti) - A traditional healer was shot dead late Sunday in Russia’s turbulent North Caucasus region of Dagestan, police reported.

"Around 10.40 p.m. an unknown visitor entered the house of healer named Magomedrasul Kurbanov in Dagestan’s Buinaksk and fired several shots at him,” a regional police spokesman told RIA Novosti. The healer died at the scene. The police are looking for the gunman.

The killing follows a series of recent attacks on traditional healers and fortunetellers in the North Caucasus plagued with Islamist insurgency in the past several years.

Officials have blamed militants for the attacks saying that they considered the victims’ activity as contradicting their views on pure Islam.