Sunni Muslim males collect to supply prayers in the course of the funeral ceremony for victims who died in a tribal conflict, in Kurram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on October 13, 2024. | Photograph credit score: AFP
At the very least 16 individuals, together with three ladies and two youngsters, have been killed in a contemporary sectarian conflict in northwest Pakistan, officers stated.
Sunni and Shia Muslim tribes have been concerned in intermittent preventing for a number of months within the Kurram district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Kurram, beforehand a semi-autonomous space, has a historical past of bloody clashes between tribes belonging to the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam which have claimed a whole lot of lives over time.
A convoy of Sunnis was touring beneath the safety of paramilitary troopers on Saturday (Oct 12, 2024) once they got here beneath assault, a senior Kurram administration official stated. AFP on situation of anonymity.
“In consequence, 14 individuals, together with 3 ladies and a couple of youngsters, have been killed and 6 others have been injured,” he stated.
Border police responded and killed two of the attackers, who have been recognized as Shiites, he stated.
The official stated the most recent assault had “sectarian motives” that “have plagued the area for the previous twenty years.”
“Each battle tends to amass a sectarian dimension,” he stated.
Different current clashes in July and September killed dozens of individuals and ended solely after a jirga, or tribal council, referred to as a ceasefire.
Officers try to barter a brand new truce. Tribal and household disputes are widespread in Pakistan.
Nonetheless, they are often significantly extended and violent in distant areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the place communities respect conventional tribal codes of honour.
The Shia neighborhood in Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, has lengthy suffered discrimination and violence.
Revealed – October 13, 2024 05:37 pm IST