Four members of the Orange Order have been warned to be on their guard against a dissident republican attack, it emerged today.
The organisation revealed the threat after Sinn Fein named 16 members in Belfast who were told they are being targeted by dissidents.
The entire SDLP has also been advised by police to step up its members' security amid concerns that loyalist paramilitaries are preparing an attack.
The Orange Order revealed four members of the institution had been advised to be on their guard and they were also told hard-line republicans were planning an attack on the caretaker of an Orange Hall in Antrim.
Sinn Fein councillors and members of District Policing Partnerships in Belfast have also been warned that their lives are in danger from a group calling itself the Irish Liberation Republican Army.
Stormont junior minister Gerry Kelly said the people behind the threats had nothing to offer republicanism. "These threats are coming from people who claim to be republicans," the Sinn Fein MLA said. "These people have nothing constructive to offer the republican struggle."
SDLP members were put on high alert last night after police informed them of a threat from elements once connected with the Ulster Defence Association in south east Antrim.
The threat extended from grassroots SDLP activists to party workers, elected representatives and retired politicians and came just days after the UDA announced it was standing down the Ulster Freedom Fighters.
The UDA has had internal problems over the past year with a renegade faction based in south east Antrim opposing the leadership.
The latest threats were condemned by Northern Ireland Policing Board chairman Sir Desmond Rea.
. "Those who threaten public representatives, who have been elected by and for their communities, have nothing to offer our society," he said in a statement.