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21-11-2024
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report
PESHAWAR/ KARACHI: Gunmen in northern Pakistan killed at least 38 people in two attacks on Thursday, officials told media, part of a sectarian conflict that has claimed dozens of lives in recent months.
Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribes have been engaged in intermittent fighting for several months in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Sectarian clashes have seen hundreds of people killed over the years in the province’s Kurram district, formerly a semi-autonomous area.
Thursday’s attacks targeted two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims travelling in Kurram, Javed ullah Mehsud, a senior administration official, told media.
“The death toll has now risen to 38, with 11 others injured in both attacks,” he said, revising an earlier toll.
“Initial reports confirm that the victims include six women, several children, and police officers,” he added.
“Approximately 10 attackers were involved in both incidents, firing indiscriminately from both sides of the road.”
A police officer confirmed the latest toll, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“Both convoys consisted of around 40 vehicles travelling under police escort,” he told media.
Mehsud said that “women and children sought refuge in local houses, and we are currently searching for (the attackers) in the area.”
“Initial reports suggest it was the same sectarian issue that has plagued the region for months,” he said, adding that most of the victims were Shia.
Ajmeer Hussain, 28, was among those attacked and taken to a local hospital for treatment.
“Gunfire suddenly erupted and I started reciting my prayers, thinking these were my final moments,” Ajmeer Hussain, a 28-year-old victim being treated at a local hospital, told media.
“I laid down at the feet of the two passengers sitting next to me. Both of them were struck by multiple bullets and died instantly,” he added.
“The shooting lasted for about five minutes.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the latest attacks, saying in a statement that “the enemies of peace in the country have attacked a convoy of innocent citizens, an act that amounts to sheer brutality”.
Tribal and family feuds are common in Sunni-majority Pakistan, where the Shiite community has long suffered discrimination and violence but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has witnessed a significant rise in violence in recent months.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) urged authorities this month to pay “urgent attention” to the “alarming frequency of clashes” in the region, warning that the situation has escalated to “the proportions of a humanitarian crisis.”
The group said more than 70 people were killed in intermittent clashes since July.
“The fact that local rival groups clearly have access to heavy weaponry indicates that the state has been unable to control the flow of arms into the region,” HRCP said in a statement.
“The protracted trauma and violence… the residents have been subjected for over a year must not become the new normal,” it added.
Thursday’s attacks comes just days after at least 20 soldiers were killed in separate incidents in the province.
Last month, at least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a sectarian clash in the district.
Impartial, natural and independent sources once again claimed that over 90,000 Shia Muslims including women and children have been killed and almost 100,000 permanently or temporary injured while at least 200,000 either forcibly missed or kidnapped during last 30 years in Pakistan but neither the authorities are ready to acknowledge these figure nor the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UK, USA especially Australia accepted these claims yet.
Hundreds of victims told PMI that neither the said countries accept continued “Shia Target Killing in Pakistan” nor even could realize because of their mind-set, unawareness, misguidance and criminal negligence, sources added.
