At least 38 people, most of them Shiite Muslims, were killed in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday as gunmen ambushed convoys of vehicles that had been under the protection of security forces.
The attack was one of the deadliest in months of sectarian violence in the Kurram region, a scenic mountainous district bordering Afghanistan.
Pakistan is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, but Kurram’s population of 800,000 is nearly half Shiite Muslim, contributing to a cauldron of tribal tensions.
Conflicts, often rooted in disputes over land, frequently escalate into deadly sectarian clashes. The violence highlights the government’s persistent struggle to maintain control in the region.
Javedullah Mehsud, a senior district government officer, and Hidayat Pasdar, a journalist from Kurram, said that the latest attack involved separate ambushes of two convoys passing through Sunni-majority villages.
The vehicles had been traveling in opposite directions on the main road connecting Parachinar, a Shiite-majority town in Kurram, to Peshawar, the provincial capital 135 miles away.
The road, a vital lifeline for the district, had only recently reopened after being closed for three weeks because of an ambush on Oct. 12 that left at least 16 people dead.
During the closure, residents of Parachinar were cut off from essential supplies, including food and fuel, leading to a growing humanitarian crisis.
Earlier this month, thousands of people from Parachinar staged a peaceful 10-mile march demanding the road’s reopening and guarantees of security. The authorities responded by temporarily restoring access and promising government-protected convoys three times a week.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but various militant groups, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or T.T.P., have a history of targeting Shiite Muslims in the district.
Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, which includes Kurram, condemned the attack and directed the authorities to establish a provincial highway police force to secure key transport routes.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent rights body, said that the repeated attacks in Kurram showed the federal and provincial governments’ failure to protect citizens.
“We demand immediate and decisive steps from both governments to permanently break this cycle of violence,” the commission said in a statement.
This year has been particularly deadly in Kurram. In late July, a weeklong clash between Sunni and Shiite communities left 46 dead and hundreds injured. Another bout of violence in September claimed 45 lives and wounded dozens.
“This violence has become a cycle that the authorities seem unable to break,” said Sharif Hussain, a university student from Parachinar who had planned to travel to Peshawar in the coming days. “The state has abandoned us. Even in security-escorted convoys, we are left to die at the hands of terrorists.”
The post At Least 38 Killed as Gunmen Ambush Shiite Convoys in Pakistan appeared first on New York Times.
