ISLAMABAD: The guns in restive Kurram District fell silent after week-long armed clashes between rival tribes which claimed around 50 lives and left over 200 injured while the Thall-Parachinar road continues to remain blocked, prolonging a serious humanitarian crisis due to shortages of edibles, medicines, petrol and other items of daily use.
Officials of the Kurram District administration told Business Recorder that the armed conflict between two tribes of villages, Malikhel and Boshehra which started a week ago over a piece of land turned into deadly sectarian clashes engulfing the entire Kurram District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa along Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Rival tribes in villages including Boshehra, Malikhel, Dandar, Pewar, TariMangal, Muqbal, KunjAlizai, Nastikot, Para Chamkani, Karman, Khar Kalai, Sangina and Balishkhel and other villages were targeting each other’s villages with small and medium range weapons including rocket launchers, mortars and small range missiles.
Local authorities said that a complete ceasefire was enforced by Monday and security forces were deployed on the trenches that the locals were using for targeting each other’s positions.
Around 50 people were killed and over 200 others wounded in the week long armed clashes which started on July 24 and gradually spread over to almost whole Kurram District, the authorities said.
However, the only road, Thall-Parachinar road which connects the volatile Parachinar with rest of the country remained closed as armed groups have blocked the road in various parts of Lower Kurram and also in some parts of Hangu and Kohat.
Following Monday’s ceasefire, efforts for restoration of durable peace in the region were underway and a grand jirga as well as Kohat’s general officer commanding (GOC) of 9 infantry division, and Kohat division’s deputy inspector-general and commissioner were in Parachinar on Tuesday to hold talks with members of the Jirga and elders from both sides on the efforts for peace.
According to District Police Officer (DPO) Nisar Ahmed Khan, law enforcement agencies personnel deployed at fighting positions would remain stationed until complete normalcy. He said that efforts were also underway to reopen Thall-Parachinar road for all kinds of traffic.
On Monday, miscreants attacked ambulances carrying critically injured from Parachinar to Peshawar near Hangu, as they refused to allow movement of injured or any other vehicle of the opposite tribe, as multiple videos went viral where the miscreants were checking identities of the passengers before allowing them to travel on Thall-Hangu road.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024