PESHAWAR: Feuding communities in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday agreed to a new 10-day ceasefire, as the death toll from a week-long spate of sectarian violence rose to 111, officials said.
“A ten-day ceasefire between the warring parties in Kurram has come into effect as of today,” the office of the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the district is located, said in a statement.
The statement caps a day of continuing hostilities, with provincial officials saying that the death toll from the latest spate of violence had climbed to 111, including 79 Shias and 32 Sunnis. Another 88 people were injured.
Pakistan is a Sunni-majority country, but Kurram district — in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan — has a large Shiite population and the communities have clashed for decades.
The provincial minister’s office added that troops will be deployed at key locations in Kurram to enforce the ceasefire and compensation will be provided to the victims’ families.
“Negotiations will continue to ensure lasting peace,” the statement said.
The latest violence began last Thursday when two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims traveling under police escort were ambushed, and at least 43 people were killed.
Provincial officials brokered a seven-day truce this weekend but it did not hold.
Police have regularly struggled to control violence in Kurram, which was part of the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas until it was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.
Last month at least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a sectarian clash in Kurram.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 79 people had been killed between July and October in sectarian clashes.
New 10-day truce after over 110 killed in Pakistan sectarian feuding — officials
https://arab.news/ga8vt
New 10-day truce after over 110 killed in Pakistan sectarian feuding — officials
- Troops will be deployed at key locations in Kurram to enforce the ceasefire, compensation will be provided to victims’ families
- The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 79 people had been killed between July and October in sectarian clashes
Pakistan expresses solidarity with Canada as school shooting claims 9 lives
- At least 9 dead, 27 wounded in shooting incident at secondary school, residence in British Columbia on Tuesday
- Officials say the shooter was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after the incident
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday expressed solidarity with Canada as a high school shooting incident in a British Columbia town left at least nine dead, more than 20 others injured.
Six people were found at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School while a seventh died on the way to the hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement on Tuesday. Two other people were found dead at a home that police believe is connected to the shooting at the school. A total of 27 people were wounded in the attack.
In an initial emergency alert, police described the suspect as a “female in a dress with brown hair,” with officials saying she was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“Saddened by the tragic shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia,” Sharif wrote on social media platform X.
He conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a swift recovery to those injured in the attack.
“Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people and Government of Canada in this difficult time,” he added.
Canadian police have not yet released any information about the age of the shooter or the victims.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the violence, announcing he had suspended plans to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday.
While mass shootings are rare in Canada, last April, a vehicle attack that targeted a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver killed 11 people.
British Columbia Premier David Eby called the latest violence “unimaginable.”
Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, described it as one of the “worst mass shootings” in Canada’s history.
