Trimble challenges SF over paramilitary activity

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has challenged Sinn Féin to say where it stands on paramilitary activity after the IRA was allegedly involved in an abduction in Belfast last night.

There has been no statement yet from Sinn Féin either on the police claim of IRA involvement or in response to Mr Trimble's challenge.

Police arrested four men last night after they swooped on a van in Belfast city centre.

The fifth man in the van is understood to be Bobby Tohill from the republican lower Falls area in the west of the city.

Mr Tohill has repeatedly denied involvement in the murder of Danny McGurk in the lower Falls last August - for which the dissident Real IRA was held responsible.

He's said to be injured but stable in hospital after he was abducted from a city centre bar and bundled into the van.

After the chief constable Hugh Orde said he is in no doubt the mainstream IRA was responsible, Mr Trimble said the republican political leadership must make clear where it stands on such activity.