ABBOTTABAD, April 12 At least seven people were killed and over 200 others injured when protesters demonstrating against renaming the NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa clashed with police here on Monday.

The protesters blocked roads, pelted police with stones, torched two police vehicles and an ambulance of Edhi Foundation, smashed billboards and also set a police station on fire.

Police used tear gas shells and also opened fire to disperse the crowd.

This was the worst day of unrest in the history of this town, forcing closure of the Karakoram Highway linking Mansehra, Kohistan, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit.

The district administration had imposed Section 144 in the city on Sunday evening, banning rallies and public gatherings, but a large crowd gathered at the Fawara Chowk at about 9am. Groups of people burnt tyres, blocking almost all roads. Police used batons and tear gas to disperse protesters, but this sparked violence all over the town.

A mob attacked the Cantonment police station and set it on fire. When police failed to bring then under control with batons and tear gas they opened fire. More than 200 people were wounded and the area around Fawara Chowk turned into a battlefield. Doctors said 73 injured people were admitted to the district headquarters hospital and 29 to the Ayub Medical Complex. Two of the people killed were identified as Zahid and Waqas, while other bodies were taken away by relatives and their identities could not be ascertained till late in the evening.

District police chief Iqbal Khan told journalists that police opened fire in self-defence after a mob had besieged the Mirpur police station. Students remained stranded in their schools and faced difficulties in returning home.

Long queues of vehicles were seen stranded along the KKH as protesters played hide and seek with police.

A spokesman for the Anti-Pakhtunkhwa Movement, Naseer Khan Jadoon, accused police of using brute force against peaceful protesters. He said police had used tear gas and fired indiscriminately at people.

Rallies were also held in Haripur and Mansehra districts in protest against the use of force in Abbottabad.

Mohammad Ashfaq adds from Peshawar Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar accused 'hidden hands' of being behind the violence. He said a judicial inquiry would be held into the incident.

He said holding peaceful protests and rallies was a democratic right, but no one would be allowed to damage public property and violate the law.

The minister said the people of Abbottabad had been protesting peacefully for eight days but the sudden eruption of violence had raised many questions regarding involvement of 'unseen elements'.

“We contacted prominent leaders of different parties in Hazara division and assured them that the provincial government would address their concerns over the renaming of the NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but not a single leader came forward for talks,” he said.

He said Amir Muqam and Mushtaq Ghani of the PML-Q and former chief minister Sardar Mehtab Abbassi of the PML-N had been contacted to help control the situation.

He said the PML-Q leadership had announced that it would stop the PML-N from holding a convention, which prompted the provincial government to impose Section 144.

He said the number of casualties would have been higher if some pre-emptive steps had not been taken.

The minister appealed to political parties and people of Abbottabad to remain peaceful and identify saboteurs who were bent upon disturbing the situation in the name of protests.

He said it was premature to blame anyone for the violence, but such elements would be traced through the judicial inquiry and given exemplary punishment.