Sunni activist executed in Pakistan

Police in Pakistan say at least one person has been killed and many injured in violent clashes following the execution of a Sunni Muslim activist.

The activist, Haq Nawaz, was hanged for the killing ten years ago of an Iranian diplomat and a prominent Shia Muslim Sadiq Ganji in the Punjab capital, Lahore.

The murder was one of the first cases in which a foreigner was the victim of sectarian violence in Pakistan.

Police used tear gas and batons to control more than two thousand Sunni protestors as the body of the executed man arrived in his home town Jhang some two-hundred kilometres west of Lahore. Hundreds of women also joined the protest as the funeral got underway. Several hundred supporters of the militant group Nawaz belonged to, Sipah-e-Sahaba, were detained ahead of the execution in an effort to head off protests and clashes between militants from Pakistan's majority Sunni and the minority Shiite sects of Islam.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service