Scores of Muslims in New York city rallied after the leader of a New York City mosque and an assistant have been shot dead by a gunman who managed to escape after the killings, Sky News said on Sunday. 

Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and 64-year-old Thara Uddin left the Al Furqan Jame mosque in the Ozone Park section of Queens shortly before 2pm on Saturday after afternoon prayers.

The pair were walking together along a street when the lone gunman approached them from behind and shot them in the head at close range, police said.

Both men were taken to hospital but died "while life-saving procedures were being performed", a hospital spokesman said.

Police said no motive has yet been established and no arrests have been made.

Tiffany Phillips, a spokeswoman for the New York City Police Department, said no evidence has been uncovered to suggest the two men were shot because of their faith.

Even so, police were not ruling out any possibility, she added.

Some members of the Bangladeshi community served by the mosque said they wanted the shootings to be treated as a hate crime.

The protesters chanted "We want justice!"

Source ; MENA