Islamabad, Nov 23: Fresh sectarian clashes have left at least 37 dead and 103 injured with casualties rising every passing hour in the Kurram district of Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The latest violence comes as a retaliatory offensive by Shia militia groups after Thursday’s massacre of 47 Shia Muslims when unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of passenger vans from Parachinar. As per available details, fresh sectarian clashes started early Saturday morning in Kurram district with a large number of gunmen targeting surrounding villages with heavy arms, turning entire villages into rubble and setting homes, markets and government buildings on fire.
“The attacks were carried out by Shia militant group Zainabiyoun which had vowed to avenge the killing of Shias on Thursday. It was their people who attacked the villages and burnt everything. The death toll is still rising,” said an official in Kurram district.
Another eyewitness of the carnage confirmed that he also saw charred bodies of at least six attackers. Reports indicate that the attackers have also kidnapped women with the tribal elders of both Shia and Sunni sects in the district sending out messages to intensify attacks.
Reports of clashes are still coming in from at least three different locations in the Kurram district while the Thall-Sada-Parachinar Highway remains closed from Kohat district. With the ongoing clashes escalating and intensifying, a provincial government delegation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) departed from Peshawar to Kurram district to review the law and order situation.
The helicopter carried a government delegation composed of KP Law Minister, Chief Secretary and Inspector General of Police. The delegation met with the local administration in Kurram district but, while it was on its way back, the helicopter reportedly came under gunfire.
However, the chopper was able to make a safe landing in Peshawar. The situation in Kurram district continues to become more critical. Sunni and Shia sectarian clashes have left close to 100 dead and about 200 others injured in a span of 48 hours.
There are no signs of any breakthrough in ensuring peace in the area with both sects vowing to inflict bloodshed, chaos and carnage against each other. Kurram district has a history of sectarian violence.
In September, at least 60 people from both sects were killed in separate incidents, according to Provincial Governor Faisal Karim Kundi. The Shia-dominated Parachinar area, which has seen bloody confrontational clashes with the surrounding areas of the Sunni majority in the past, saw police vehicles and security checkpoints being set ablaze by protestors on Friday as roads were blocked by stones and burning tyres.
The protesters in Parachinar also demanded immediate opening of the border with Afghanistan amid worsening situation, shortage of food, medicines, fuel and oxygen. A Shia organisation and political party Majis Wahdat Muslimeen (MWM) has put forward demands to the government, including activating the Parachinar airport due to unsafe roads and the starting of free shuttle service between Parachinar and Peshawar via PIA or air force planes.
MWM has also called for replacement of federal forces by local Kurram militia. The protestors have warned if their demands are ignored by the provincial and federal government then they would be forced to seek international help by human rights organisations and even the United Nations.
IANS