A number of houses were evacuated in Sion Mills, Co Tyrone this morning after a suspect package was found at the home of an independent woman member of the Strabane District Policing Partnership (DPP).
As police examined the package, SDLP councillor Eugene McMenamin condemned plans by Sinn Féin to picket a meeting of a local board in Strabane.
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"What I am saying is that protests like this only give credence to those who are intimidating district policing partnership members, whether they are elected or civilian," Mr McMenamin said.
"People need to understand that what the DPPs are about is providing a safer environment in local communities by tackling issues of local importance like under-age drinking.
"These arrangements have given people in Strabane and other places in Northern Ireland the opportunity for the first time in their history to air their concerns about policing issues at public meetings."
Sinn Féin has refused to call off tonight's protest in Strabane, despite a spate of threats and attacks against Catholic DPP members across Northern Ireland.
Three members of district policing partnerships have resigned because of attacks and threats, which have mainly been blamed on dissident Republicans like the "Real IRA".
However Provisional IRA members have also been accused of intimidating DPP members in Cookstown. The deputy chairman of Northern Ireland's Policing Board, Denis Bradley, has also been threatened.
Sinn Féin chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin yesterday laid the blame for all the threats and attacks on hard-line republicans who he said were more opposed to his party than they were to unionists or the British authorities.
Mr McLaughlin also insisted that the Strabane protest would be "peaceful, dignified and legitimate".