45 Killed As Tribal Feud Sparks Sectarian Fighting In Pakistan

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) ISLAMABAD – At least forty five people have died and over hundred wounded in Pakistan's lawless north-western frontier area where a small tribe is trying to break a seven day long siege imposed by armed groups, some of whom have crossed over from neighbouring Afghanistan, news reports said on Monday.

Official and local sources said that the land dispute between two tribes - Shia Malikhel and Sunni Mangal of Madaki Kali in Boshehra village - turned deadly, spreading
over to the whole Kurram district.

The fighting between the two sides began on Wednesday, when a gunman opened fire at a council negotiating a decades-long dispute over farmland, local police official Murtaza Hussain said.

Rival tribes in villages including Boshehra, Malikhel, Dandar, Pewar, Tari Mangal, Muqbal, Kunj Alizai, Nastikot, Para Chamkani, Karman, Khar Kalai, Sangina and Balishkhel joined in and began targeting each others villages with small and medium range weapons including rocket launchers, mortars and small range missiles.

Hospital sources in Kurram
Agency headquarter, Parachinar said that the district hospital had received 31 dead bodies and around 150 injured by
Sunday evening.

They said that the casualties might be higher as they were unable to confirm the dead and injured that have received the hospitals in Sadda, as there is no official number available to confirm the overall death toll.

Since the single road linking Parachinar with the rest of the country is closed for almost a week now, there is a serious shortage of essential items, medicines, fuel and other commodities. A resident said over phone that the district hospital of Parachinar was flooded with the injured while the only health facility was running short of life saving medicines.

The trouble erupted after a land feud between rival tribes spilled over into sectarian fighting with both sides using machine guns and mortars.

While no one was wounded in that attack, Hussain said it reignited longstanding religious tensions between the clans who live side-by-side in the district of Kurram on the border with Afghanistan.

“Initially a land dispute, the issue has now escalated into sectarian violence,” Hussain told
AFP, confirming the conflict“claimed 45 lives” so far.

“The conflict, now in its fifth day, has escalated into a sectarian dispute with the arrival of extremist groups, like those sympathetic to Tehrik-e-Taliban from
neighbouring areas,” one report said.“All attempts to resolve the conflict have failed.”

A government official said the Shia tribe has“suffered most” in the conflict, with 30 of those killed from the tribe.

A police source said both sides were using automatic weapons and mortars in fighting focussed around the town of Parachinar, which had been blockaded by law enforcement.

“Initially the elders of the Sunni-populated areas gathered in the village of Bushehreh and approached the Shia elders of Parachinar to resolve their differences by holding a peace jirga (peace meeting)”, according to a report by IWN news agency.

“However the interference and violence by Pakistani-Afghan Takfiri armed groups has turned this land dispute into a deadly sectarian feud”, it added. It further said the situation aggravated after several Shia residents, including a child, were abducted and beheaded by the extremist groups.
It is noteworthy that Parachinar has been on radar as it is home to a large number of fighters who have returned after serving as volunteers to defend the holy shrines of Iraq and Syria from Daish onslaught.

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