As many as 16 more people were killed and 25 injured in continuing clashes between rival tribes in Kurram District on Saturday. The violence, which was sparked by a recent armed attack on two passenger convoys, has already claimed 44 lives.
The deadly gunfights between the Alizai and Bagan tribes were reported from Balishkhail, Kharkali, Kunj Alizai, and Maqbal village in Tehsil Lower Kurram of Parachinar, the main town in Kurram District. The opposing groups were using heavy and automatic weapons against each other.
In response to the deteriorating law and order situation, all educational institutions in Kurram District were shut down.
Thousands protest across Pakistan
Thousands of people took to the streets in various cities of Pakistan on Friday, a day after sectarian attacks in Kurram killed 44 people, including six women and five children. Gunmen opened fire on two separate convoys of passengers traveling with police escorts in Kurram on Thursday.
Several hundred people demonstrated in Lahore on Friday. “We are tired of counting the bodies. How long will this bloodshed continue?” Khanum Nida Jafri, a 50-year-old religious scholar protesting, told AFP. “Do our officials not consider Shias as part of their own population? When will they wake up?” she added. “We are demanding peace for our children and women. Are we asking too much?”
Hundreds also demonstrated in Karachi. In Parachinar, thousands participated in a sit-in, while hundreds attended the funerals of the victims, resident Muhammad Ali told AFP. “Following the funerals, the youth gathered, chanted slogans against the government, and marched toward a nearby security checkpoint,” Ali said.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that “some broke CCTV cameras at the checkpoint, burned tyres, and caused damage to property” before the situation de-escalated. Mobile phone signals across the district were shut down for several hours, according to the official. “A curfew has been imposed on the main road connecting Upper and Lower Kurram, and the
