Election violence: Two killed as PTI, PPP workers clash

Activists of the two parties were campaigning in Pindi when the clash broke out.

RAWALPINDI:

A clash between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supporters on Friday during local body electioneering in Rawalpindi has claimed the lives of two men, said a police official.

Supporters of the PPP were killed after an armed clash broke out during election campaigning in Sultanabad, in the Ratta Amral area, said the official.

The deceased were identified as Muzamil Hussain, 18 and Muslim Shah, 17. Hussain died on the spot while Shah died in hospital. The police said that supporters of the two parties were campaigning in Street 10, Sultanabad, when an armed clash broke out between the two groups.

The supporters were chanting slogans against each other, which incited people on both sides, the official added.

A police party later reached the spot and cordoned off the area.

Ratta Amral Station House Officer (SHO) Altaf Gohar, however, claimed that “the incident has no link with the election campaign”.

Local PTI leader Arif Abbasi told The Express Tribune that “Neither of the dead was a PTI worker.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2015.