16 killed in latest northwest Pakistan sectarian clash

16 killed in sectarian clash in Pakistan's Kurram district, highlighting ongoing Sunni-Shiite tensions in the region.

At least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a fresh sectarian clash in Pakistan’s northwest, officials said.

Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribes have been engaged in intermittent fighting for several months in the Kurram district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Kurram, formerly a semi-autonomous area, has a history of bloody confrontations between tribes belonging to the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years.

A convoy of Sunnis was travelling under the protection of paramilitary soldiers on Saturday (October 12, 2024) when they came under attack, a senior Kurram administration official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

“As a result, 14 people, including 3 women and 2 children, were killed, and six others were wounded,” he said.

Frontier police responded and killed two of the attackers, who were identified as Shiites, he said.

The official said the latest attack had “sectarian motives” that “have plagued the region for the past two decades”.