The people responsible for the gun attack at the weekend on a Derry bus driver should be pursued and prosecuted, SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan said today.
The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, responding to criticism from Ulster Unionists about his silence on the shooting of Mr Daniel McBrearty, said he had been consistent in condemning paramilitary violence from all quarters.
He called on the Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid to state if the IRA, who were blamed yesterday for the attack by Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid, had breached a ceasefire.
Mr Durkan said: "In relation to the attack on Mr McBrearty, I've no reason to disbelieve the claim that members of the IRA carried out that attack.
"But let me be clear. I have always been consistent in condemning any act of violence, whether it is in my or other constituencies by mainstream loyalists, mainstream republicans, dissident loyalists or dissident republicans".
Mr Durkan urged anyone with information about the shooting, which injured the bus driver in the legs, in the Creggan area of Derry on Sunday, to come forward.
He also warned Ulster Unionist leader and Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble against using the incident to bring down the power-sharing institution at Stormont.
PA