Three people were killed today in Shia-Sunni sectarian violence in Pakistan's Punjab province, taking the death toll to 15 since the unrest started on Friday.
"Three dead bodies with torture marks have been recovered from different parts of the district, believed to be the persons abducted by the rival groups in the ongoing sectarian conflict," Bhakkar District Police Officer Sarfraz Falki said.
An armed clash between the two rival religious groups, Ahle Sunnat Waljamaat (ASWJ) and Majlis Wahdtul Muslimeen (MWM) took place last Friday in Bhakkar district, some 400 kilometres from here, when ASWJ activists were protesting the killing of their worker.
However, it is not confirmed how many more workers of each group have been kidnapped during the clash.
Falki said some 30 people had been arrested for violation of curfew in sensitive areas in the district.
Both groups held rallies in different cities of the country including Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan against the killings of their activists and demanded the government arrest the culprits.
ASWJ chief Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi, who is also the head of banned Sipah Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), told a press conference here that Bhakkar sectarian clash was a "planned conspiracy against Pakistan."
He said the government should immediately arrest the killers of ASWJ workers otherwise "we will be free to take revenge from the killers of our workers".
The SSP has a stronghold in Bhakkar and adjacent districts like Jhang and Layyah.
