December 30, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 19, 1428

RAWALPINDI, Dec 29: As uncertainty prevails about the Jan 8 general elections after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and subsequent countrywide violence, clashes have taken places between supporters of different parties.

Angry people, after attending funeral prayer for Ms Bhutto in the Liaqat Bagh on Saturday, tried to attack the house of former federal minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed but they were stopped by a heavy contingent of police and paramilitary personnel.

Five Pakistan Muslim League-N workers had been killed allegedly by activists of the PML-Q near the airport a few hours before the killing of Ms Bhutto. The PML-N workers were gathering near the Kiral chowk on the Islamabad Highway to welcome their leader Nawaz Sharif when they clashed with their opponents over installing party banners. Five PML-N activists were killed in the firing on the spot and two others died in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences the following day.

The assassination of Ms Bhutto has changed the whole electioneering atmosphere in the city. Enraged PPP activists have removed and burnt posters and billboards of PML-Q candidates on and around the Murree Road.

On Friday evening, some activists of the PPP clashed with PML-Q activists in the Chah Sultan area when they were returning after attending the funeral prayers for their colleagues who had died in the Rawalpindi suicide attack. The clash had left two PPP activists injured.

A group of PML-Q activists resorted to aerial firing at Dhoke Syedan on Friday night after PPP workers burnt their banners, posters and election offices.

Some rioters also put on fire the central election office of PML-Q candidates Basharat Raja and Faisal Iqbal at Chur Harpal near Westridge.