At least 42 killed in sectarian violence in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Gunmen unfastened occurrence connected buses carrying Shia pilgrims successful Kurram, wherever clashes with Sunnis person escalated successful caller months.

Gunmen person opened occurrence connected convoys of Shia pilgrims successful northwestern Pakistan, sidesplitting astatine slightest 42 people, according to authorities successful the restive state of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Women and children were among the fatalities successful the attacks successful the Kurram tribal territory connected Thursday, constabulary said connected Friday.

Sectarian unit has escalated since July successful Kurram, a portion bordering Afghanistan, betwixt Shia and Sunni tribes implicit onshore disputes.

Gunmen opened occurrence connected 2 abstracted convoys of Shia pilgrims travelling with constabulary escorts successful Kurram. No radical has claimed work for the attacks.

Javedullah Mehsud, the lawman commissioner of Kurram, said the attacks took spot erstwhile the convoys were connected their mode from the territory office of Parachinar to Peshawar.

Mehsud told Al Jazeera connected Friday that each the bodies had been recovered and burials would beryllium conducted aboriginal successful the day.

Police said 20 radical were wounded.

“We besides managed to retrieve 26 radical belonging to the Shia assemblage past night, including women and children, who were kept hostage by Sunni groups,” Mehsud said.

Ajmeer Hussain, 28, survived the attack.

“Gunfire abruptly erupted and I started reciting my prayers, reasoning these were my last moments,” Hussain told the AFP quality agency.

“I laic down astatine the feet of the 2 passengers sitting adjacent to me. Both of them were struck by aggregate bullets and died instantly,” helium said.

“The shooting lasted for astir 5 minutes.”

Condemning the attacks, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said, “The enemies of bid successful the state person attacked a convoy of guiltless citizens, an enactment that amounts to sheer brutality.”

Mehmood Ali Jan, a section tribal elder, told Al Jazeera that locals were furious with the authorities, particularly instrumentality enforcement which was expected to supply information to the convoys but failed to bash so.

“People are readying to stitchery successful Parachinar to protestation against the information forces,” Ali Jan said.

The attacks came days aft astatine slightest 20 soldiers were killed successful abstracted incidents successful the province. In October, 11 radical were killed successful tribal clashes successful Kurram.

Kurram has a agelong past of sectarian strife betwixt Shia and Sunni groups. More than 2,000 radical were killed successful the deadliest play of unit betwixt 2007 and 2011.

The mountainous portion adjacent to Afghanistan’s Khost, Paktia, and Nangarhar provinces has besides go a hotspot for equipped groups, with predominant attacks by the Pakistan Taliban oregon Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), and ISIL (ISIS).

Earlier this month, thousands gathered for a bid march successful Parachinar, urging the authorities to heighten information for Kurram’s 800,000 residents, of whom much than 45 percent beryllium to the Shia minority.

Commenting connected Thursday’s attacks, Mehsud said: “There is people a batch of choler and fury among the radical successful the country … This was a onshore quality which has present turned into a tribal-cum-sectarian rift but we person afloat enactment of tribal elders not lone from Kurram but besides different areas.”

The authorities cannot regularisation retired the beingness of militants successful this attack, helium said, but investigations are continuing.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies