Two men have been shot and wounded just two streets from the scene of a 'punishment shooting' for which a notorious IRA bomber was arrested.
The incident, on Friday evening in the Oldpark area of north Belfast, came just three days after an 18-year-old youth was shot at the Flax Centre in Ardoyne Avenue.
Sean Kelly was arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland the following day and held for questioning for 36 hours before being released without charge.
Sinn Fein has denied that the IRA man, who was given nine life sentences for his role in the 1993 Shankill bombing, had any involvement in the attack on Padraig McAleenan.
The victim of that shooting – who has several criminal convictions for theft, assault and riotous behaviour – underwent emergency surgery after it was discovered that one of the bullets had penetrated his bladder.
Kelly was released from the Maze in 2000 under the prisoner-release terms negotiated alongside the Good Friday Agreement and has been prominent alongside leading republicans in north Belfast during nationalist protests against Orange Order parades.
He is viewed as a 'hate figure' among loyalists for his role in the bombing of Frizzell's fish shop in October 1993, in which fellow bomber Thomas Begley and eight Protestant civilians were killed.
It is not known if Friday evening's shooting has any connection with Tuesday's attack on McAleenan or the arrest of Kelly, but on Thursday morning masked men entered the Flax Centre in Ardoyne, locked staff in an office and then removed footage from a CCTV system which may have recorded the McAleenan shooting.
Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly claimed that the PSNI's serious crime branch had "questions to answer in arresting a high-profile republican who has always supported the peace process".
Kelly's licence was revoked briefly in 2005 after it was alleged that he had been involved in violence in north Belfast.
