Pakistan sectarian clashes restart, breaking short-lived truce

Sectarian violence restarted in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, shattering a fragile ceasefire brokered to end last week’s deadly clashes that claimed over 80 lives, officials confirmed.

The unrest, centered in Kurram near the Afghanistan border, highlights the region’s vulnerability to sectarian and tribal conflicts in areas with limited governance. The violence escalated last Thursday when ambushes on two Shiite Muslim convoys under police escort triggered prolonged gun battles.

Kurram deputy commissioner Javedullah Mehsud reported continued “tribal clashes and gunfire” in multiple areas, while a local security official confirmed ongoing fighting in at least three locations, though no new casualties have been reported.

“There are significant disagreements over the exchange of prisoners and bodies,” he told AFP. “According to my information, both communities are currently holding over 18 individuals hostage, including eight women.”

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Police have regularly struggled to control violence in Kurram, which was part of the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas until it was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.

The short-lived truce was brokered by a delegation from the provincial capital of Peshawar, but even their helicopter came under fire when it arrived in the region at the weekend, one security official said.

The feuding is generally rekindled by disputes over land in the rugged mountainous region, and fuelled by underlying tensions between the communities adhering to different sects of Islam.

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Last month at least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a sectarian clash in Kurram.

Previous clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga, or tribal council, called a ceasefire.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 79 people were killed between July and October in sectarian clashes.

Several hundred people demonstrated against the violence on Friday in Pakistan’s two largest cities, Karachi and Lahore.

With inputs from agencies.