Violence at the weekend in Portadown was deplored last night by the Loyalist Right to March Group.
There was a claim that Saturday night's trouble in the Corcrain area had been organised by elements from outside the town.
Locals say individuals believed to be from the Belfast area were identified in Corcrain late on Saturday night. These individuals, the locals say, were responsible for the attacks on the RUC which left one constable critically injured.
In another statement issued yesterday, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland formally called on the Orange Order to end its Drumcree protest. The church said it was asking the leadership of the order to "implement their own stated aims and principles of `liberty under the law' and call off the protest at Drumcree and all other associated protests and work towards a peaceful resolution of all situations of conflict".
The leader of the DUP, Dr Ian Paisley, has also condemned the Portadown violence. Dr Paisley yesterday called for "all those who have engaged in these violent activities to stop forthwith" saying the attacks on police and property "cannot be justified".
A spokesman for the Loyalist Right to March group said: "We don't want this element in Portadown. They are here to deliberately discredit our protest in support of the Portadown Orangemen. We condemn totally the vicious attack on the RUC constable. We do not seek confrontation, simply a solution to the government-created impasse over Drumcree. We say to those intent on causing trouble to stay out of Portadown ".
The Loyalist Volunteer Force has denied any involvement in the weekend violence in the town. Sectarian confrontation is nothing new to Portadown. Recently, however, the problem has increased as a result of the Parades Commission ban on the Drumcree church parade.
Rival gangs of nationalist and loyalist youths have been congregating close to the Market and Woodhouse Street areas of the town centre, taunting each other with sectarian insults. Nationalists claim that the centre of Portadown has now become a "no go" area for them.
Loyalists claim that nationalists are deliberately seeking to provoke Protestants and intimidate uninvolved shoppers.
Many shoppers are now abandoning Portadown in favour of more peaceful surroundings and this is taking an economic toll on the town.
Meanwhile, the Parades Commission has rejected a fresh application by Portadown Orangemen to march along the Garvaghy Road next Sunday from Drumcree Church. The decision was taken "in the absence of any progress towards local accommodation and mutual respect, and in the light of the clear potential for disorder and further damage to relationships within the community".