Warring tribes engaged in violent clashes in northwest Pakistan reach ceasefire as death toll rises to 49

Peshawar, Jul 30 (PTI) Warring tribes engaged in clashes for a week in Pakistan's restive northwestern Kurram district have reached a ceasefire brokered by jirga leaders as the death toll rose to 49 in the fighting that also left more than 200 people injured, officials said on Tuesday.
    According to the police and district administration, armed clashes started five days ago between Sunni and Shia tribes in the Upper Kurram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, which has witnessed deadly conflicts among tribes and religious groups as well as sectarian clashes and militant attacks in the past.
    The clashes between Boshehra and Maleekhel tribesmen turned into sectarian skirmishes and spread to other areas, including Peewar, Tangi, Balishkhel, Khaar Kalay, Maqbal, Kunj Alizai, Para Chamkani, and Karman.
    Despite recent efforts from a jirga (tribal assembly) of elders from the Hangu and Orakzai districts to secure a ceasefire, fighting continued, with both sides resorting to using heavy weapons to target each other’s positions, the Dawn newspaper reported.
    "Both tribes have agreed to a ceasefire and the clashes have been halted since last night,” Kurram Deputy Commissioner Javedullah Mehsud told Dawn.com on Tuesday.
    The clashes during the past seven days in different areas of Kurram district claimed 49 lives and wounded more than 200 people, he said.
    "The (two) parties were made to clear the bunkers [and] security forces have been deployed there, while no gunfire was reported at five locations of Kurram district,” he asserted.
    Officials with the help of tribal elders, military leadership, police and district administration earlier brokered a truce between Shia and Sunni tribes on Sunday.
    Mehsud said the ceasefire brokered by jirga members on Sunday was “largely” being adhered to but clashes resumed on Monday as well.
    Dr Mir Hassan Jan, the medical superintendent of the District Headquarters Hospital, said that the killing of 14 more people on Monday took the death toll to 49, the paper reported.
    He added that 210 people were injured as a result of the clashes, with at least 12 critically wounded people shifted to Peshawar for treatment.
    Locals said rivals were using heavy and sophisticated weapons, including mortar shells and rocket launchers, against each other. They said that mortar and rocket shells were also fired on Parachinar and Sadda, the main cities in the Kurram tribal district.
    Following Monday’s ceasefire, further efforts to sustain peace in the region were underway, Mehsud said, adding that a grand jirga, Kohat’s general officer commanding (GOC) of 9 infantry division, and Kohat division’s deputy inspector-general and commissioner were present in the Parachinar city for peace efforts.
    District Police Officer (DPO) Nisar Ahmed Khan said security forces were deployed at fighting positions, adding that they would remain stationed there until the situation returned to normalcy.
    Khan said that while business activities were beginning to resume, the main arteries and schools across the Kurram district were still closed. "Mobile data services have been suspended, while call services are active”, he said.
    Mir Afzal Khan, a local social worker, said the main Parachinar Road was closed to traffic due to the conflict, disrupting the supply of food and other items.
    “The closure of the main road is causing farmers and traders a loss of millions of rupees,” he claimed, adding that the area was also facing a shortage of food items, medicines, and other goods.
    Commenting on the clashes, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said that the tragic losses occurred due to “governance failure”.
    “Recently addressed the Kurram Agency crisis, where tragic losses are mischaracterized as a Shia-Sunni conflict,” he wrote on the X platform.
    “The real issue is the provincial government’s failure to resolve land disputes post-FATA merger. This isn’t just sectarian; it’s a governance failure.”
    The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) voiced deep concern at the “significant loss of life in Parachinar, Kurram, where rival tribes have engaged in a violent land dispute for several days, fueling sectarian conflict”.
    “The violence has taken a heavy toll on ordinary citizens, whose freedom of movement and access to food and medical supplies has been curtailed,” it said in a statement on Monday.
    “All disputes, whether over land or born of sectarian conflict, must be resolved peacefully through negotiations convened by the KP government with all stakeholders represented,” it said.
    KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said that the district administration and the police should play an effective role in the ceasefire between the parties, and no one shall be allowed to take the law into their hands and ruin the area’s peace.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)