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Eight Shot Dead As More Religious Riots Erupt In Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least eight people were killed and six injured as violence broke out in the northwestern Pakistani city of Hangu on Thursday, news agencies reported.
Police said riots erupted after gunmen opened fire in a market killing three Shiite Muslims and critically wounding another person, a day after the execution of a Sunni Muslim for the 1990 murder of an Iranian diplomat.
The assailants emerged from a van and sprayed bullets at a crowded market before escaping. The incident triggered violent demonstrations in the city and exchanges of gunfire between Shiites and Sunnis, they said.
Police said clashes between rival armed groups left five people dead and another five wounded. Rampaging crowds of Shiites and Sunnis also torched shops and vehicles. At least six shops and several vehicles were set on fire, police said.
Residents said thuds of gunfire were heard late into the evening. "The situation is still tense and the authorities have rushed paramilitary troops to quell the rioting," senior home ministry official Manzur Ahmed said.
Central Punjab province was tense and heavily guarded Thursday as residents of Jhang, a rural town and headquarters of the Sunni group Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), mourned the execution of SSP member Haq Nawaz.
Violent protests and gun battles between police and fervent Muslims in Jhang Wednesday left two civilians dead and 11 injured, police said. One of the dead succumbed to his wounds overnight in hospital.
Thousands of police were deployed throughout the province, especially Jhang and the main cities of Lahore and Rawalpindi, to prevent a feared backlash by Sunni activist groups.
Nawaz, aged around 33, was hanged at dawn Wednesday for the 1990 murder of Sadiq Ganji, director of the Iranian Cultural Center in Lahore.
He was the first Sunni activist to be executed in Sunni-majority Pakistan despite more than a decade of sectarian violence with rival Shiite activists in violence that has claimed some 3,000 lives.
Jhang residents said shops in some areas were open but traffic was thin. A group of SSP supporters burnt tires and attacked vehicles in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, but fled the scene when police arrived, witnesses said.
The SSP hailed Nawaz as a martyr and vowed to "eliminate" Shiites from Pakistan. "Haq Nawaz is a martyr and he has given us a boost to continue our fight against our enemies," SSP deputy secretary general Manzoor Ahmad Shakir said.
"We are more committed to eliminate all those who dare to speak against the Prophet and his three caliphs. We will not spare any of them."
More than 3,000 people joined Nawaz's funeral procession in Jhang on Wednesday, ignoring hundreds of police and armored military vehicles.
"The situation is under control and we are keeping a strict vigil on the movement of the supporters of SSP," senior police officer Tariq Khosa said.
"It has taken the government 11 years to establish its writ against the extremists and we are thoroughly committed to ensure that the situation does not get out of control.
The sectarian bloodshed and the authorities' apparent inability to do anything to stop it has soured traditionally warm ties between Pakistan and Iran.
The violence has continued despite the military government's promise to rein in activists, who are said to have damaged Pakistan's international image and led to accusations that authorities are soft on "terrorism".
Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider recently emphasized the need to control the public display of weapons and more closely monitor fund-raising activities of groups advocating jihad, or holy struggle.
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