A shooting in Portadown has brought renewed calls for the ejection of the Progressive Unionist Party from the peace process. Unionist pressure for the expulsion of Sinn Fein from the talks also increased yesterday.
Mr Sammy Wilson, a DUP spokesman, said the PUP should be forced from the talks after shots were apparently fired in Portadown on Tuesday night at Mr Mark Fulton, a loyalist and personal friend of the murdered LVF leader, Billy Wright.
The PUP is linked to the UVF.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said his understanding was that the IRA ceasefire still held.
Mr Fulton said he was shot at as he was entering a flat near Westland Road in the town at around 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday. He said he escaped by getting into the flat before his attackers could hit him.
The PUP spokesman, Mr David Ervine, claimed the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) had "stage-managed" the shooting to discredit his party and have it expelled from the talks.
Before the shooting there were reports in Portadown that the UVF was planning an attack on a senior loyalist figure there. Mr Fulton also told the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, in advance of the shooting that he was under threat.
Mr Ervine said it was "incredible" that the UVF should try to wreck its ceasefire because of antipathy to Mr Fulton. He claimed the incident was designed to "have a cloud cast over the PUP's continued presence in the talks."
Mr Fulton, a close confidant of Billy Wright, who was murdered by the INLA at Christmas, said he was angered by Mr Ervine's comments.
"My whole family are scared out of their wits by this. Does David Ervine actually think that I would stage something like this to harm my family?"
A bullet was recovered from the scene.
Mr Ervine suggested that given the LVF split from the UVF in the Portadown area, it would not be difficult for the LVF to have used a UVF weapon.
Mr Sammy Wilson of the DUP said Mr Ervine's comments must be treated with suspicion. "The PUP should not only be ejected from the talks but rejected by the unionist electorate," he said.
Meanwhile, seven people from west Belfast were still being questioned in Castlereagh RUC holding centre last night in connection with the shooting on Tuesday of Mr Robert Dougan in Suffolk in south-west Belfast.
They were arrested following security operations in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast where a car, a hijacked Ford Sierra believed to have been used in the murder of Mr Dougan, was located.
Sinn Fein Twinbrook councillor Mr Paul Butler claimed that the RUC was engaged in "felon setting" by linking those arrested to Mr Dougan's murder. The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said the RUC presence in Twinbrook was continuous since Tuesday and was "extremely intimidating and threatening."
Unionist politicians said they suspected the IRA was behind the murder of Mr Dougan and the murder on Monday night of Mr Brendan Campbell. Sinn Fein must be expelled from the talks if the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, had such evidence, they said.
Mr McLaughlin indicated last night that his party would strongly resist any attempt to indict Sinn Fein at the talks over the killings. Sinn Fein had not broken the Mitchell Principles and had an electoral right to be at the talks.
"We will be participants in the talks that open in Dublin next week," he said.
He did not believe there was any proof to link the IRA to the "two tragic deaths" of recent days. Based "on all the information" at his command, "at this moment in time the IRA cessation still holds."
The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, said he was unaware of any intelligence which suggested who was responsible for the recent killings. He said, however, that if the use of violence or the threat of violence could be linked to any party still in the talks, then that party too must face expulsion, as had happened the Ulster Democratic Party over UDA murders.
It also emerged yesterday that a murder might have been planned in south Belfast on Tuesday night.
A joint RUC/British army patrol stopped two men acting suspiciously on the loyalist Belvoir estate at around 10 p.m.
A search of the area uncovered a holdall containing two handguns, balaclavas, gloves and other items. Two men were arrested and were last night being questioned about the find.
Families Against Intimidation and Terror (FAIT), meanwhile, has condemned a so-called punishment beating and shooting in Armagh on Tuesday night. A man was assaulted and shot three times in the knees.
