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Eight killed during northern Pakistani sectarian violence

Sectarian clashes continued despite a curfew in a remote northern Pakistani town yesterday, leaving at least eight people dead and 45 wounded in two days, officials said.

Authorities clamped down on Friday after fighting broke out between factions of Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Parachinar, 230km south of Peshawar, North West Frontier Province.

"Eight people have been killed and 45 are wounded in sporadic exchanges of mortars and gunfire between the rival groups," said Sahibzada Anees, head of the political administration of the area.

He said troops were patrolling the streets in the town nestled in the Hindu Kush mountains, which has a history of sectarian violence involving Shiite and Sunni communities.

Clashes between the two communities over a shrine last year left around 20 people dead.

Anees said trouble erupted on Friday after members of the Shiite community staged a demonstration outside their mosque against local Sunnis who allegedly chanted anti-Shiite slogans during a religious rally last week.

Meanwhile, in a bold challenge to the government, a firebrand cleric said he had formed an Islamic court to enforce a Taliban-style vice campaign in the Pakistani capital, threatening suicide attacks if authorities try to stop him.

Thousands of followers of Maulana Abdul Aziz underlined their defiance by chanting: "Our way is jihad." They set fire to hundreds of mainly Western DVDs and video cassettes outside Islamabad's Red Mosque.

Friday's events deepen a dilemma for President General Pervez Musharraf -- endure growing criticism for creeping "Talibanization" in Pakistan despite his alliance with the US, or force a potentially bloody showdown with fanatics who have grown under his rule.

Students from a seminary adjoining the mosque launched a morality crackdown earlier this month by threatening shopkeepers selling films and music. They even kidnapped an alleged brothel owner and held her for two days until she made a public confession.

Aziz addressed about 3,000 people at the mosque for a conference on Sharia and jihad -- Islamic law and holy war. Listeners filled the courtyard and packed the roof of the red-walled building just a few hundred meters from the city's government district.

Dozens of students armed with wooden poles and with checkered scarves tied around their faces patrolled outside the perimeter wall.

In his sermon, Aziz announced that he had established a Sharia court of 10 clerics to dispense Islamic justice. He said the clerics would issue decrees, but gave no other details about the court's supposed jurisdiction.

He said it would begin in one month if the government didn't move against "centers of vulgarity" in the city -- and warned authorities against trying to stop his activities.
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