Khyber protests continue to rock Hazara

Islamabad: Violent protests continued Tuesday in the Hazara Division of Pakistan's northwest province against renaming of the region as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the death toll in two days of bloody unrest rose.

The protest campaign, now into a second week, worsened on Monday when clashes between armed police and thousands of demonstrators left eight people dead and around a hundred injured.

One more person was killed and four injured in fresh violent incidents in the towns of Abbottabad, Hairpur, Mansehra and other parts of the Hazara region, as thousands of people took part in rallies, reports on domestic television channels said.

The people of Hazara have rejected the new name for the province reflecting its ethnic Pakthun majority.

The 342-member National Assembly last week approved a constitutional reforms bill containing a host of amendments to the constitution, one which renames the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.