Photo: AFP
Peshawar: At least 82 people have been killed and 156 injured in three days of bitter sectarian gunfights in northwest Pakistan, a local official reported on Sunday.
“Among the deceased, 16 were Sunni, while 66 belonged to the Shia community,” according to a local government official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Kurram district who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Although Pakistan is a Sunni-majority nation, there have been decades of conflict between the Shiite and Sunni communities in the Kurram area, which lies close to the Afghan border, AFP reported.
Although Pakistan has a Sunni majority, there is a sizable Shiite minority in Kurram district, which is close to the Afghan border. The populations have been at odds for many years.
The most recent round of violence started Thursday when two different convoys of Shiite Muslims travelling under police escort were ambushed, resulting in two days of gunfights and the deaths of at least forty-three people.
“Our priority today is to broker a ceasefire between both sides. Once that is achieved, we can begin addressing the underlying issues,” provincial Law Minister Aftab Alam Afridi said Sunday.