At least 38 people, including women and children, were killed and 11 injured on Thursday, November 21, in the latest episode of violence between Shiites and Sunnis that regularly engulfs northwestern Pakistan.
“Two convoys carrying Shiites (…) were the target » in Kourram, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on the border with Afghanistan, Javed Ullah Mehsud, a member of the local administration, told Agence France-Presse (AFP), who clarified that “Most of the victims were Shiites”. A police officer present at the scene confirmed the death toll to AFP, on condition of anonymity, stating that they were murdered police officers.
“A dozen assailants shot blindly from both sides of the street”he added, while, for months, families of both religions only travel to the areas inhabited by the other camp under police escort.
“Suddenly shots rang out. (…) “Two bullets hit me in the stomach and leg.”Ajmeer Hussain told AFP, who had been waiting for a week for the departure of an escorted convoy to reach Peshawar, the provincial capital, further east.
The shooting lasted “about five minutes” AND “I said my last prayers because I thought my time had come.”continues this 28-year-old Pakistani, currently hospitalized. “I lay down at the feet of the two passengers sitting next to me. “They were shot and died instantly.”informs again. “Twenty minutes later I heard the voices of the neighbors who took me out of the vehicle. »
This attack of“a convoy of innocent citizens is an act of pure brutality”Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reacted.
Land disputes
From July to October, 79 people died in clashes between Shiite and Sunni tribes in this mountainous region, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the main NGO defending freedoms in the country.
Tribal and sectarian clashes, using light or heavy weapons, particularly mortar shells, increasingly break out and then cease when a jirga, a tribal council, reaches a truce. A few weeks or months later, violence breaks out again.
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In July, September and October, Kourram was heartbroken by these clashes between tribes of different religions. In particular, they are fighting over land in the district where tribal codes of honor often trump the order that security forces fight to maintain. In October, 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed during an attack on a Sunni convoy protected by paramilitaries.
“There remains strong tension between Shia and Sunni communities due to land disputes, and each conflict tends to take on a sectarian dimension.”a senior local official then explained to AFP.
The Human Rights Commission urges the authorities to “bend down urgently” about the fate of Kourram in “humanitarian crisis”denouncing the “Alarming frequency of these confrontations”. “The fact that local rival groups clearly have access to heavy weapons indicates that the state has failed to control the flow of weapons in the region”regrets the NGO.
During this week, several attacks shook the mountainous northwest of the country, killing at least 20 soldiers, while seven police officers were kidnapped for an entire day.
“The prolonged trauma and violence that residents have been subjected to for more than a year must not become normal”warned the CPDH. In Pakistan, a Muslim country with a Sunni majority, Shiites have long claimed to be victims of discrimination and violence.
