Four die as sects clash after Pakistan attack

KOHAT, Pakistan, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Small-arms and rocket fire between Muslim sects killed four people in and around a Pakistani town after 36 people, mostly minority Shi'ites, died in a suicide bombing and other violence, officials said on Friday.

Thursday's bombing targeted a Shi'ite procession in the town of Hangu in North West Frontier Province marking Ashura, the holiest day in the Shi'ite calendar.

No group claimed responsibility, but Shi'ite leaders were quick to accuse Sunni militants blamed for decades of sectarian attacks as well as al Qaeda-linked Islamist violence.

The bombing sparked exchanges of fire between bands of Shi'ites and Sunnis in and around Hangu, which continued into Friday morning, said Shi'ite cleric Maulana Khurshid Anwar.

Two people died in Hangu town and two in the nearby mountain village of Ibrahimzai, Hangu Mayor Ghani-ur-Rehman told Reuters.

The shooting in Hangu, which is under curfew imposed by troops sent to restore order, died down before dawn. But exchanges of fire continued in Ibrahimzai, and in another village named Shahu where more than 100 rockets fell.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao said the army and paramilitary troops had brought the situation in Hangu town under control, but sporadic firing continued in surrounding areas.

Religious scholars from the Sunni and Shi'ite sects were appealing for peace via mosque loudspeakers or from jeeps patrolling the town, he told private Geo TV.

TROOPS SENT TO MOUNTAINS

Troops had also been sent into the mountains around Hangu to flush out armed Sunnis, the region's deputy police chief Abdul Majeed Marwat told Reuters.

"It may take some time, but hopefully the situation will be brought completely under control some time today," he said, adding that the appeals from clerics should help cool tensions.

Hangu district police chief Mohammad Ayub said efforts to stop the clashes were hampered by rumours spread about attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques.

Qalb-e-Hassan, a Shi'ite leader and mayor of Ustarzai, a town near Hangu, called on the army to take action to stop rocket and mortar fire on Ibrahimzai, where he said 350 rockets had landed, killing three people and wounding three more.

"If the army does not take immediate action, then we ourselves will take action," he said.

Another Shi'ite leader, Syed Mahtab ul Hassan, said casualties in Hangu had been limited only because Shi'ite leaders had evacuated men and women from vulnerable parts of the town.

Mountain villages in North West Frontier are awash with weapons and disputes are often settled through violence.

Pakistan has suffered Islamist sectarian violence for years, most by majority Sunnis against Shi'ites. But Hangu Mayor Ghani-ur-Rehman said on Thursday he did not believe traditional rivalry was responsible and termed the attack "terrorism".

Analysts say that in recent years sectarian attacks by Sunni groups linked to al Qaeda have appeared to have a broader aim of destabilising the rule of President Pervez Musharraf and his alliance with Washington in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Pakistan's top Shi'ite leader Sajid Ali Naqvi called the Hangu incident "religious terrorism" and accused Musharraf's government of failing to rein in Sunni militants.