At least three ladies and two kids have been amongst 16 folks killed Sunday within the newest spat of sectarian conflict to hit northwest Pakistan, native officers stated.
Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribes have been engaged in intermittent preventing for a number of months within the Kurram district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Kurram, previously a semi-autonomous space, has a historical past of bloody confrontations between tribes belonging to the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam which have claimed a whole bunch of lives over time.
A convoy of Sunnis was touring underneath the safety of paramilitary troopers Saturday once they got here underneath assault, a senior Kurram administration official informed AFP on the situation of anonymity.
“As a result, 14 people, including 3 women and 2 children, were killed, and six others were wounded,” he stated.
Frontier 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 region for the past two decades.”
“Every conflict tends to take on a sectarian dimension,” he stated.
Other latest clashes in July and September killed dozens of individuals and ended solely after a jirga, or tribal council, known as a cease-fire.
Officials try to dealer a recent truce.
Tribal and household feuds are widespread in Pakistan.
However, they are often significantly protracted and violent in distant areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the place communities abide by conventional tribal honor codes.
The Shiite group in Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, has lengthy suffered discrimination and violence.
Source: www.dailysabah.com