World News | Toll in Kurram's Sectarian Violence Rises to 122 with Gunfighting Continuing Week Later
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. With two deaths in fresh incidents of gunfire despite a ceasefire between the Shia and the Sunni groups, the toll has increased to 122 in the sectarian violence over last week in different parts of Kurram district in northwest Pakistan, police and hospital said on Friday.
Peshawar, Nov 29 (PTI) With two deaths in fresh incidents of gunfire despite a ceasefire between the Shia and the Sunni groups, the toll has increased to 122 in the sectarian violence over last week in different parts of Kurram district in northwest Pakistan, police and hospital said on Friday.
The clashes in the Kurram district of the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province escalated with fresh gunfire claiming two more lives and injuring six others on Thursday prompting Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Friday to extend an offer to Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to personally visit the disturbed area.
The clashes between Alizai and Bagan tribes in the district started on November 22, after an attack on a convoy of passenger vans near Parachinar in which 47 people were killed a day earlier. Several passengers who had sustained grave injuries succumbed later, raising the toll in the convoy killing to 57.
Over last Friday and Saturday, at least 37 people were killed and several others injured in the tribal sectarian violence in Bagan Bazaar area and soon the violence spread to other parts, including at Balishkhel, Khar, Kali, Junj Alizai and Maqbal in the district.
As on Friday, at least 65 people have been killed in the continued gunfighting since then, police and hospital sources said.
The government had earlier brokered a seven-day cease-fire between the Shia and Sunni communities on Sunday, later extended to 10 days. However, despite the cease-fire, sporadic clashes have continued, police said.
“As of Friday, the death toll into Kurram's sectarian violence has increased to 122 with 145 others injured since November 21 as the clashes between the Sunni and the Shia tribal communities have continued unabated,” police and hospital sources added.
The main Peshawar-Parachinar highway remained closed to all traffic, while internet and mobile services were also suspended.
Apart from offering to personally go to the disturbed area, Governor Kundi also planned to dispatch members of a grand peace jirga (council of the tribal leaders) from Kohat division to Kurram district for engaging with leaders from both warring factions to negotiate peace.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)