Curfew renewed after clashes in Pakistan

Islamabad. Pakistan has reimposed a curfew in the northern city of Rawalpindi, after sectarian clashes that have claimed at least nine lives, officials said.The curfew was briefly suspended on Saturday night, but was back in place by Sunday morning, with army units patrolling the city in order to keep the peace.On Sunday, authorities also extended a cellphone services suspension from Rawalpindi to neighbouring Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. The suspension will last until 2:00pm local time (09:00 GMT) on Sunday.The initial curfew was imposed after at least nine people were killed and 50 wounded in sectarian clashes at a Shia Muslim religious procession on Friday.Violence erupted at the Ashura procession as it passed by a Sunni Muslim seminary, where a cleric was delivering a sermon that marchers said was insulting to Shia Muslims. Several people within the seminary also reportedly shouted insults at the procession.The ensuing clashes, which lasted for several hours and resulted in the burning down of the seminary and a number of shops in the area, escalated from beatings into an exchange of gunfire.The rival groups attacked each other, TV cameramen and security forces, witnesses said.Violence also erupted in the southern city of Multan and Chishtian town, where authorities called in troops to maintain law and order.A senior police official in Multan told the AFP news agency that at least 12 people were injured there when Sunnis took to the streets to protest against the Rawalpindi incident, leading to clashes with Shias who fired warning shots in the air.In neighbouring Chishtian, a Shia mosque was partially damaged and several shops were destroyed when Sunnis torched them in retaliation for the violence in Rawalpindi.Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province, of which Rawalpindi is a major city, told an official meeting after the clashes that the government should ensure those responsible for the clashes are brought to justice.“We condemn the act of violence in Rawalpindi and sympathise with the aggrieved families. We will take the culprits to the task,” he said in his statement.But one local legislator, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who is a member of the lower house of the parliament, said that the violence there was the result of the local government’s failure.