'No policy change on paramilitary attacks'

Abduction victim was left bleeding outside Armagh school

A nationalist assembly member has said he does not believe the abduction and wounding of an Armagh man signals a change in paramilitary policy.

For four months republican paramilitary style attacks seemed to have stopped.

But the abduction and shooting of Mark Kelly, 24, who was left lying in a pool of blood near a primary school on a country road on Saturday after being abducted on Wednesday has fuelled speculation that republicans have gone back to carrying out so-called 'punishment attacks.'

SDLP assemblyman John Fee: "No change in paramilitary policy"

The attack followed the paramilitary style wounding of a man in the nationalist area of Ardoyne in north Belfast on Thursday.

The IRA was blamed for the attack on the 30-year-old who was shot in both legs.

While some beatings in loyalist and republicans areas have continued, the use of guns against victims of the attacks have been rare since the main groups called ceasefires in 1994.

A 46-year-old man was also shot by masked men in a loyalist area of east Belfast on Saturday night.

But Social Democratic and Labour Party assembly member for Newry and Armagh John Fee said that while the abduction was "extremely disturbing" he did not feel there had been a change in paramilitary policy.

"A chill has gone right through the entire community when we see this kind of violence being perpetrated with total impunity.

"It is very frightening and very disturbing but I don't yet believe that we have seen a policy shift by republicans or loyalists and a wholesale return to punishment beasts and the like," he said.

Attack condemned

Mr Kelly was snatched from his Greenpark Manor home in a nationalist area of Armagh City by five masked men on Wednesday night.

He was found on Ballymoyer Road, near Newtownhamilton close to the Northern Ireland border on Saturday night just hours after security forces found a burnt out white Ford van similar to one used in his abduction.

Detectives on both sides of the Northern Ireland border had been hunting for him when a call was made to the ambulance service about where he would be found.

He was taken to hospital for treatment for gunshot wounds to his hands, elbow and ankles.

His condition is described as stable.

Green Park Manor is a quiet housing development outside Armagh City.

Mr Kelly's family declined to comment on his abduction.

Local Parish Priest Father Gerard McQuillan visited the family during the days he was being held.

"His mother was very relieved and happy that he was alive and well," he said.

Ulster Unionist assembly member for Newry and Armagh Danny Kennedy said the actions of Mr Kelly's abductors "had no place in a decent society".

"No group or individual has the right to act as judge and jury and out themselves above the law.

"All law-abiding people are rightly horrified that such barbarity and thuggery could take place," he said.