An injured victim is being treated at a hospital after sustaining wounds in sectarian attacks in Kurram district, located in Parachinar, the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on November 27, 2024. — AFP
Sectarian gunfights between rival communities in northwest Pakistan persisted on Wednesday, according to a local government official, as the death toll from a week-long wave of violence climbed to 89. Pakistan is predominantly Sunni, but Kurram district, situated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the border with Afghanistan, has a significant Shia population, and the communities have been at odds for decades. The recent unrest started last Thursday when two separate convoys of Shias, traveling under police protection, were ambushed, resulting in at least 43 deaths. Provincial officials attempted to broker a seven-day truce over the weekend, but it failed to hold.
"There are still sporadic reports of gunfire from various areas," a local government official in Kurram district told AFP, requesting anonymity. The official confirmed that the death toll of 89 over the past seven days includes two new fatalities from recent skirmishes. Local tribal elders are now engaged in renewed negotiations for a truce, with expectations that a ceasefire will be implemented either today or tomorrow, the official added.
Police have historically struggled to maintain control over violence in Kurram, which was formerly part of the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas until its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018. Last month, at least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a sectarian clash in Kurram. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that 79 people had been killed in sectarian clashes between July and October.
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