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ISLAMABAD: Four people were shot dead at a campaign rally for former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday, police said, and Sharif's party blamed rival supporters of President Pervez Musharraf.
The Muslim League-N party said 17 of its people were also wounded in the shooting, which comes less than two weeks before what has been a bitterly contested parliamentary election. Police said three people were hurt.
The violence threatens to worsen the political turmoil in Pakistan, where Islamic militants have vowed to disrupt the January 8 vote and Musharraf's opponents have accused the president of planning to rig the election.
Witnesses said the gunfire appeared to have come from a nearby compound belonging to the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Q which backs Musharraf, but this was not immediately confirmed by police.
"Four people have been killed and three others injured," said local police official Shoaib Janbaz, declining to give further details.
The incident began when Sharif supporters were preparing banners for the rally and a scuffle broke out, a police official said. Sharif was not present at the time.
"We vehemently condemn the killing of four Muslim Leaguers and the injuring of 17 others," Javed Hashmi, senior vice-president of Sharif's party, told AFP.
"The PML-Q people are responsible for these killings. They should be immediately arrested," Hashmi said.
He said the party would launch nationwide protests over the "heinous" shooting, which he said was aimed at stopping public campaign rallies.
Musharraf banned public rallies under a six-week state of emergency he imposed last month, citing a wave of militant attacks as well as what he said was a judiciary that was interfering in the running of the country.
But critics said the emergency, which the president lifted on December 15, was imposed as cover for a purge of anti-Musharraf judges who might have entertained legal challenges to his re-election as president.
"Armed men from a nearby house came out and started firing at the rally," said Ilyas Subhani, an official from Sharif's party.
"Soon there were about two dozen armed men who came out from the home of a PML-Q party candidate from Islamabad, and they started firing at us."
Sharif is banned from standing in the January 8 parliamentary election but his party is a potent political force in Pakistan, which has been plagued by violence this year.
A former two-time premier, Sharif is a bitter rival of Musharraf, who ousted him and took power in a 1999 coup.
Pakistan has witnessed an unprecedented wave of violence this year, including more than 40 suicide attacks.
The deadliest such attack in Pakistan's history came in October, when twin suicide bombers hit a rally for the other main opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, as she returned home after years in exile. The attack left 139 dead. - AFP/ac
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