At least 11 people have been killed, six of them burnt alive, in remote northern Pakistan in violence that erupted after an attack on a minority Shia Muslim leader.
Pakistani authorities imposed a curfew in Gilgit, the main town in the mountainous region known as Northern Areas, and called out the army to quell the violence after enraged Shias went on the rampage following the attack on Mr Ziauddin Moosavi yesterday.
Mr Moosavi was travelling in his car to a mosque in the centre of Gilgit, 150 miles north of the capital Islamabad, when unidentified gunmen opened fire, critically injuring him and his three guards.
Two of the guards later died.
One of the attackers was killed when Mr Moosavi's guards returned fire, Northern Areas Home Secretary Mr Jamil Ahmed said. "He is not from Gilgit. We are trying to establish his identity," he told Reuters.
Mr Ahmed said eight people were killed in the violence that followed the attack on Mr Moosavi.
An angry mob set fire to the house of a forest department official, killing six people. A local health department official was also attacked and killed.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack on Mr Moosavi but police suspected it was a sectarian incident.
Attacks by militants of Pakistan's majority Sunni and minority Shia Muslim communities have killed hundreds of people over the years.
Saturday's violence was the worst in Gilgit since June, when one man was killed in clashes between security forces and Shias protesting against the school curriculum.
Shias account for 15 per cent of Pakistan's 150 million population.