EDITORIAL: For several days Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been mired in violence, claiming at least 35 lives and injuring 166 people. Clashes erupted between two rival groups over a land dispute, which soon turned into a sectarian conflict spreading in that volatile region.
All educational institutions and businesses were closed while traffic on main roads remained suspended. Kurrum deputy commissioner told journalists on Sunday that a jirga from the neighbouring Hangu and Orakzai districts had managed to broker a ceasefire after four days of hectic efforts. Meanwhile, police and security personnel were deployed in the hotspot of trouble, Boshehra. But firing with heavy weapons continued in at least three other places.
Kurram is the only tribal district where a large part of the population, some 40 percent, is Shia. Clashes over property ownership rights or some other issue tend to take a sectarian colour. Since May of last year, this is the fourth major violent incident.
Although hostilities between Sunni and Shia tribes go back a long time, sectarian rift and resultant violence became more pronounced when the Zia regime created training camps for Afghan ‘mujahedeen’ in Kurram bordering Afghanistan to go fight America’s war against the erstwhile Soviet Union. Before they fled to Afghanistan following a military operation, the Pakistani Taliban also had established their control in Kurram.
No surprise therefore that the place is awash with all sorts of heavy weapons, including mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, frequently used by rival tribes, as they did in the latest flare-up, to settle feuds over land and water, causing many casualties and sufferings for people in Kurram as well as in some of the adjoining areas.
So far, the state response has been to de-escalate violence via jirgas rather than addressing the issues that trigger sectarian clashes. Recurring incidents show jirgas can help bring about cessation of hostilities but are unable to provide a durable solution to the situation.
After the deadly clashes in July 2023 acknowledging the main source of trouble, the KP government had mentioned that there are eight different ongoing land disputes in lower, central and upper areas of the district, some of which date back to the pre-independence times.
For the resolution of these or any other long-standing disputes it announced the setting up of a high-level provincial revenue commission by the Board of Revenue. As per an official statement, the commission, assisted by local elders, was to inspect measured as well as unmeasured land, and settle the disputes once and for all. Its members reportedly made several visits to Kurram and were expected to decide the matter based on their findings. That was nearly a year ago. Yet the land issue continues to hang fire.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024