QUETTA, Pakistan, March 22, 2010 (AFP) - Gunmen riding a motorcycle Monday shot dead a college principal and renowned educationist in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said.

Fazle Bari, principal of private boys' college Tameer-e-Nau, was killed in the drive-by shooting when he was travelling to work in his car, senior police official Tariq Manzoor told AFP.

"Bari died on the spot and his driver was wounded," Manzoor said, linking the attack to a recent wave of unrest and "targeted killings."

Some 250 students blocked a main road during a march towards the residence of the Baluchistan governor to protest against the killing, prompting police to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd, an AFP reporter said.

Baluchistan is rife with Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between majority Sunnis and minority Shiite Muslims and regional insurgency.

Baluch rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's wealth of natural resources, in the region on the Afghan and Iranian borders. Hundreds of people have died since then.