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Violence Erupts As Pakistani Executed For Iranian Diplomat's Murder
JHANG, Pakistan, Feb 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - One civilian died and 11 were injured when Pakistani police and religious activists exchanged fire Wednesday during violent protests against the execution of a Sunni prisoner.
This town in central Punjab province was under virtual police and military siege as the body of Sunni Muslim Haq Nawaz, who was hanged earlier Wednesday for the 1990 murder of an Iranian diplomat, arrived for burial.
"There has been an exchange of fire between protestors and police and several people have been injured," a local police officer said.
Police later confirmed one protester had been killed in crossfire and another had been critically wounded.
"It's a very serious situation in Jhang and we are trying our best to restore peace," said divisional police Deputy Inspector General Tariq Khosa.
Residents said police used batons and tear gas to control angry crowds who tried to break into a mosque ahead of Nawaz's funeral in Jhang, his hometown and headquarters of Sunni group Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), or Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet.
Outside the group's headquarters, police and soldiers used tear gas against demonstrators. Unconfirmed reports state that two activists were killed there, with witnesses saying several protestors were injured.
Days before the execution, police arrested about 1,000 SSP members in order to prevent expected violent demonstrations from the group following the execution, although SSP sources claimed more than 1,200 people, including some leaders, had been detained since the crackdown began on Saturday.
Armored vehicles patrolled Jangh streets, and shops and markets were closed as residents observed a strike to protest against the execution.
Residents said the town had been "virtually sealed" by police and the army.
Security was tightened across the country ahead of the execution, especially at Iranian representative offices and certain mosques controlled by SSP.
Nawaz, an SSP member in his early 30s, was sent to the gallows before dawn in Mianwali Jail, Punjab, in one of the first cases of capital punishment against a religious activist despite years of sectarian violence which has left some 3,000 people dead.
He was executed for the killing of Sadiq Ganji, director of the Iranian Cultural Center in Lahore. The SSP accuses Iran of arming and financing Shiite Muslim groups in Pakistan. Tehran denies the charge.
The murder was one of the most high-profile assassinations in Pakistan's ongoing sectarian strife between majority Sunni and minority Shiite activists in the past decade.
The SSP has been blamed for killing scores of Shiite Muslims, whom they want to be declared non-Muslims.
The bloodshed and the authorities' apparent inability to do anything to stop it has soured traditionally warm ties between Pakistan and Iran.
Last-minute appeals from the condemned man's family, including an unconfirmed offer of money to Iranian officials here, failed to save his life.
Zahid Mahmood Qasmi, an SSP leader, said Iran refused the blood money offer.
Several police vehicles escorted an ambulance as it delivered the body to Nawaz's relatives here about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of the Punjab capital Lahore, witnesses said.
Some 3,000 people joined a procession behind Nawaz's coffin, as it was taken to a cemetery about two kilometers out of town. Although police had said only family members would be allowed to attend the funeral, 5,000 people turned out at the graveyard, where youths chanted slogans against the Shiite community.
Nawaz's father, Khalid Mahmud, in trying to comfort demonstrators, said, "Don't cry. He is a martyr. He is in heaven."
The situation was especially tense in Jhang where Sipah-i-Sahaba (Army of Caliphs), formed in 1980 in the wake of the revolution in Shiite majority Iran, is based.
SSP officials blamed police for starting the shooting and announced a "day of mourning" for Thursday.
''Whatever happens it will be the responsibility of the government for killing our brother,'' said Sheikh Hakim Ali, an SSP leader, at the funeral. "It was done to please Iran."
Khalid Mahmud said his son had killed Ganji because the diplomat had published "objectionable" Shiite literature in an Urdu translation.
Amnesty International has said the death penalty "will not resolve the ongoing violence between Sunni and Shiite extremists" in Pakistan.
"On the contrary, the use of the death penalty only encourages the cycle of violence to continue as sectarian groups seek revenge for those executed," it said.
The violence has continued despite the military government's promise to rein in extremists, who have damaged Pakistan's international image and led to accusations that the authorities are soft on "terrorism".
Most of Pakistan's 140 million are Sunni Muslims, who have no quarrel with their Shiite Muslim brethren. But small, heavily armed and well-organized groups belonging to both sects of Islam operate in Pakistan and routinely clash with one another.
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