38 Killed, Dozen Injured In Latest Attack On Shia Muslims In Pakistan

At least 38 people have died in Pakistan's restive northwest province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa after gunmen fired indiscriminately in two separate incidents of sectarian violence targeting Shia Muslims.

The region, not new to communal violence and terrorist attacks, has seen a sharp rise in such incidents in recent months, leading to the deaths of hundreds of people and dozens of soldiers.

In today's attacks, armed groups opened fire on two different convoys in which Shia Muslims were travelling. "Two separate convoys of Shiite people... were targeted by the terrorists in the Kurram district," Javed ullah Mehsud, a senior administration official, said. "The death toll has risen to 38, with 11 others injured in both attacks," he added.

The official said that as per information available to him, the deaths include that of six women, several children, and a number of police officers. He also said that "Around 10 attackers were involved in both incidents, firing indiscriminately from both sides of the road."

Each convoy reportedly had more than 40 vehicles and were being escorted by the police. The women and children who could escape the vehicles and run, took refuge in houses in the vicinity, said the official, adding that "we are currently searching for (the attackers) in the area."

Though the conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims in most Islamic nations have existed for centuries, Pakistan is facing a surge in such violence and killings. Tribes have been engaged in intermittent fighting for several months in Kurram, in the mountainous northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Last month, at least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a sectarian clash in the same district. Earlier this year - in July and September - dozens of people were killed in violent clashes that paused only after a jirga, or tribal council, called a ceasefire.

SOLDIERS KILLED IN KHYBER-PAKHTUNKHWA

Earlier this week, more than 20 soldiers of the Pakistani Army were killed in two separate incidents of terrorist attacks in the smae province. A suicide attack in northwest Pakistan had killed 10 soldiers on Tuesday, a day after a clash with terrorists left eight soldiers Killed in Action in the same region bordering Afghanistan.

While the suicide bombing was claimed by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur armed militant group, the clash with soldiers a day earlier was carried out by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban. They said it was in response to a search by security forces targeting one of its members.

The TTP is separate from the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, but both were active in supporting the Afghan Taliban in its war against the US-led NATO coalition since 2001.

The Afghan Taliban reclaimed power in Kabul in 2021, and Pakistan's border areas have seen a resurgence of violence since then.

The TTP claimed an attack in late October that left ten police officers dead at a check post in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.