Sectarian clashes in Pakistan’s north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province during the last 24 hours have claimed at least 37 lives, police said on Saturday. At least 30 others have been injured in these clashes and the toll may rise because new details are emerging by the hour, according to a report in leading Pakistan daily Dawn.
The trigger for these sectarian clashes between Alizai and Bagan tribes in Kurram district, bordering Afghanistan, was Thursday’s attack on a convoy of passenger vans near Parachinar in which 50 people were killed. The convoy comprised around 200 vehicles and armed men targeted it from hilltops from four different directions.
Incidentally, KP is the only province ruled by the Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Imran’s diehard loyalist Aman Ali Gandapur is Chief Minister of the province and murmurs have started against him for failing to check unruly elements in the province. Some write-ups in leading Pakistani newspapers have talked about Gandapur being busy mobilising support for Imran and ignoring the governance of the province.
Some elements in the ruling PML-N of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif have time and again blamed Imran for the violence in KP. They say that Imran’s efforts to buy peace with Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) emboldened them and this was the root cause of the present spiral of violence.
Top ranking officials from the administration and police rushed to the area in a helicopter, adding efforts being made to establish peace by involving tribal elders have failed so far. “At least 37 are dead as at now (but) the death toll is still rising,” an official tasked with collecting details of the carnage told the media in Peshawar.
The tribes are targeting each other with heavy and automatic weapons, the police said. Several homes and shops have been damaged in the fighting and people from various villages have fled to safer locations.
All educational institutions in the district remained closed on Saturday due to disturbed conditions. Some videos from the area showed at least six bodies of the attackers and some charred bodies of the victims. Police also said that there were reports of six women taken as captives but “due to limited connectivity, information and communication is scant to ascertain anything more.” Gunfire continued in Balishkhel, Khar Kali, Kunj Alizai and Maqbal through the day, police said, adding, currently there is intermittent firing from at least three areas in the district, while the Thall-Sada-Parachinar Highway remained closed from traffic towards Kohat district.
As officials struggled to reinforce peace in the volatile region, communication from the elders of both the tribal sects suggested further intensified attacks.
Tribal leaders have expressed deep concerns as for the past one and a half months, they had been urging the government to ensure safe travel for common citizens. This was done after repeated attacks on isolated patches had disrupted supplies and made travel unsafe.
A fortnight ago, over a lakh people had participated in a peace march to reopen and secure the main highway, after which the government assured them of safe convoys. In September, more than 50 people were killed and 120 others injured in clashes spread over eight days between Shia and Sunni tribes over a piece of land in Kurram district.
The intensity of the fighting had led to the closure of the Parachinar-Peshawar main road and the Pak-Afghan Kharlachi border, disrupting transportation and movement. The road blockade has caused a shortage of essential items, including food, fuel, and medicines.
The fighting had spread to areas such as Balishkhel, Sadda, Khar Kallay, Peewar and Maqbal in the district, which borders Afghanistan’s Khost, Paktia, Logar and Nangarhar provinces, which are considered strongholds of the ISIS and the Pakistan Taliban.
Similar clashes in the same region in July left dozens of people dead and more than 225 injured.
Of late, a new phenomenon is being witnessed in that most newspapers sidestep coverage of violent incidents like this. They seem to be underplaying them and often fail to give complete details of the incidents. However, BBC and Al Jazeera reports on these incidents keep citizens aware about the goings-on despite repeated curbs on internet.
