Accusing the state government of trying to create social discord to cover up its "failures", Opposition PDP today exuded confidence that people would "defeat the latest government design to divide them on religious and sectarian lines".

"Having failed in its conspiracy to create a Muslim-Sikh wedge to distract attention from its gross failures, the government has started now on the Shia-Sunni front", PDP vice president and a member of the State Assembly Molvi Iftikhar Ansari said in a statement here.

Giving details of what he termed as "dangerous government plan", Ansari said "Ikhwanis, a group of militants turned counter-insurgents, had been pressed into service in areas with mixed population of the two sects".

He claimed that a meeting was held the other day in the home of notorious and dreaded Ikhwani Qasim Khaar in Nowgam village of Sonawari area to form a group in the name of Shia community to pit the two sects against each other.

Ansari said while this group will certainly not succeed in sowing the seeds of discord between Muslims in the state, it was necessary to be vigilant.