The mysterious disappearance of two youths affiliated with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) raised tension in strife-ridden Lebanon and sparked rumors of violence.

Media reports have tied the pair's disappearance to the killing of an opposition supporter in sectarian riots in the capital of Beirut in January, but the family of the dead man denied responsibility, local newspaper The Daily Star reported on Thursday.

A police communique released on Tuesday identified the two missing as Ziad Ghandour, 12, and Ziad Qabalan, 25.

The brief communique said the two left the Beirut PSP stronghold of Wata Msaitbeh on Monday in a French-made Renault minivan which was found 24 hours later deserted east of the capital.

The communique included photographs of the two, urging anyone with information pertaining to their whereabouts to report to the police. It did not disclose further details.

"The country is on knife edge," a ranking security official was quoted by local Naharnet news website as saying on Wednesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the nation's Internal Security Force was "preoccupied all day with verifying rumors about finding the dead bodies of the two missing youths."

Rumors have linked their disappearance to a vendetta abduction related to the killing of pro-Hezbollah Adnan Shamas during riots between pro and anti-government factions in Beirut on Jan. 25, said the report.

The Shamas clan, however, in a statement distributed by the state-run National News Agency, said it was not affiliated with the abduction of the two youths, condemned the act and called for their release.

Meanwhile, a source close to the PSP told The Daily Star that Jumblatt had called parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in the first such contact between the two leaders in months, asking Berri to help secure Qabalan and Ghandour's release "to avoid unrest."

According to a report of Lebanese Central News Agency (CNA) on Wednesday, the Lebanese Army stepped up patrols in the capital, deploying on the road to the airport and other areas, while patrols were conducted on several Beirut streets.

On Jan. 25, a row between government supporters and opponents in Beirut's Arab University triggered deadly clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, leaving four people killed and 169 injured.

Currently, Lebanon is facing its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Opposition ministers, including all Shiites, resigned from the government last November because of Prime Minister Fouad Seniora's refusal to give them 11 seats in the 30-member cabinet and effectively hand veto power to his opponents.

Source: Xinhua