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Rival groups clash during Pak by-elections

Taliban torch ski resort, kill three

AFP, Islamabad
Rival groups clashed with guns and sticks during by-elections in Pakistan yesterday, a day after a court postponed voting in a constituency where ex-premier Nawaz Sharifhoped to stand.
Security was tight across the country during polling for five parliamentary constituencies and 23 provincial assembly seats left empty following general elections in February.
Police said four people were wounded and 11 others arrested when rival groups clashed outside a polling station in Jehania town, near the city of Multan in Punjab province.
"The rival groups fired in the air and used batons against each other at a main polling station in Jehania, injuring four people," local police official Kamran Khan told reporters.
It was not clear which parties the groups supported.
Voting was suspended at a separate women's polling station when another group shot into the air, Khan added.
Pakistan's election commission said polling was peaceful everywhere except Jehania.
"The commission immediately took notice of the situation in Jehania and it was brought under control," election commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad told AFP
The by-elections are being held to fill seats left empty for a variety of reasons, including unrest and candidates winning more than one seat in February's poll.
In the general election, allies of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf were trounced by the parties of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and Sharif, who was ousted from power by Musharraf in a 1999 coup.
The government has declared local holidays in the constituencies where by-elections were being held and long queues formed at polling stations, Dilshad said.
"Security is on high alert and the provincial governments have taken special measures to maintain law and order during the polling," he said.
"We urge the people to go to polling stations and cast their votes and fulfil their national duty."
Dilshad said polling was being conducted in an "absolutely, transparent, fair and just manner."
The Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed polling for one parliamentary seat in the eastern city of Lahore after the government lodged an appeal against the disqualification of Sharif earlier in the week
Meanwhile, Pakistani Taliban militants torched the country's only ski resort and separately killed three people in a northwestern tourist valley, despite a recent truce with security forces, officials said.
The attack on the governmentrun hotel happened at Malam Jabba, part of the troubled Swat Valley where followers of an Islamist cleric signed a peace deal with Pakistani authorities in May after months of clashes.