Gunmen open fireplace on buses carrying Shia pilgrims in Kurram, the place clashes with Sunnis have escalated in latest months.
Gunmen have opened fireplace on convoys of Shia pilgrims in northwestern Pakistan, killing not less than 42 folks, in response to authorities within the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Ladies and youngsters have been among the many fatalities within the assaults within the Kurram tribal district on Thursday, police mentioned on Friday.
Sectarian violence has escalated since July in Kurram, a area bordering Afghanistan, between Shia and Sunni tribes over land disputes.
Gunmen opened fireplace on two separate convoys of Shia pilgrims travelling with police escorts in Kurram. No group has claimed accountability for the assaults.
Javedullah Mehsud, the deputy commissioner of Kurram, mentioned the assaults happened when the convoys have been on their method from the district headquarters of Parachinar to Peshawar.
Mehsud instructed Al Jazeera on Friday that each one the our bodies had been recovered and burials can be performed later within the day.
Police mentioned 20 folks have been wounded.
“We additionally managed to recuperate 26 folks belonging to the Shia group final evening, together with girls and youngsters, who have been stored hostage by Sunni teams,” Mehsud mentioned.
Ajmeer Hussain, 28, survived the assault.
“Gunfire abruptly erupted and I began reciting my prayers, pondering these have been my remaining moments,” Hussain instructed the AFP information company.
“I lay down on the toes of the 2 passengers sitting subsequent to me. Each of them have been struck by a number of bullets and died immediately,” he mentioned.
“The capturing lasted for about 5 minutes.”
Condemning the assaults, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif mentioned, “The enemies of peace within the nation have attacked a convoy of harmless residents, an act that quantities to sheer brutality.”
Mehmood Ali Jan, an area tribal elder, instructed Al Jazeera that locals have been livid with the authorities, particularly regulation enforcement which was supposed to supply safety to the convoys however failed to take action.
“Persons are planning to collect in Parachinar to protest towards the safety forces,” Ali Jan mentioned.
The assaults got here days after not less than 20 troopers have been killed in separate incidents within the province. In October, 11 people were killed in tribal clashes in Kurram.
Kurram has an extended historical past of sectarian strife between Shia and Sunni teams. Greater than 2,000 folks have been killed within the deadliest interval of violence between 2007 and 2011.
The mountainous area adjoining to Afghanistan’s Khost, Paktia, and Nangarhar provinces has additionally change into a hotspot for armed teams, with frequent assaults by the Pakistan Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), and ISIL (ISIS).
Earlier this month, hundreds gathered for a peace march in Parachinar, urging the federal government to reinforce safety for Kurram’s 800,000 residents, of whom greater than 45 % belong to the Shia minority.
Commenting on Thursday’s assaults, Mehsud mentioned: “There’s naturally a variety of anger and fury among the many folks within the space … This was a land dispute which has now become a tribal-cum-sectarian rift however now we have full help of tribal elders not solely from Kurram but additionally different areas.”
The authorities can not rule out the presence of militants on this assault, he mentioned, however investigations are persevering with.
