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Three killed in poll violence in Pakistan

Sporadic clashes between political rivals left three people dead and several injured as incidents of booth capturing marred elections to the 342-member National Assembly and 4 Provincial assemblies in Pakistan on Thursday.

One person was killed and five injured as supporters of the Pakistan People's Party and the National Alliance in Naushehro Feroz clashed in Sindh province shortly after polling began.

A second person succumbed to his injuries later.

In a separate incident in Multan in eastern Punjab, one person was killed in a gunfight. Three people suffered gunshot wounds in another incident, reports said.

Over 72 million voters were entitled to vote to in the first parliamentary elections since General Pervez Musharraf overthrew the Nawaz Sharief government in 1999.

A team of international observers was in Pakistan to monitor the voting, amid claims by the opposition and human rights workers that the election was being manipulated.

In his brief interaction with the media at the polling booth in Rawalpindi, Musharraf also expressed satisfaction over the polling process and said barring a single incident of violence in interior Sindh and two minor incidents in Punjab the polling went off smoothly all over the country. "I have received reports from across the country and the overall situation is peaceful," he said.

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