PESHAWAR: Sectarian feuding in northwest Pakistan killed 13 more people, a local government official said Saturday, as warring Sunnis and Shiites defied repeated ceasefire orders in recent conflict claiming 124 lives.
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.
Fresh fighting broke out last Thursday when two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims traveling under police escort were ambushed, killing more than 40.
Since then, 10 days of fighting with light and heavy weapons has brought the region to a standstill, with major roads closed and mobile phone services cut as the death toll surged.
A Kurram local government official put the death toll at 124 on Saturday after 13 more people were killed in the past two days.
Two were Sunni and 11 Shiite, he said, whilst more than 50 people have been wounded in fresh fighting which continued Saturday morning.
“There is a severe lack of trust between the two sides, and neither tribe is willing to comply with government orders to cease hostilities,” he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Police report that many people want to flee the area due to the violence, but the deteriorating security situation makes it impossible,” he added.
A seven-day ceasefire deal was announced by the provincial government last weekend but failed to hold. Another 10-day truce was brokered Wednesday but it also failed to stymie the fighting.
A senior security official in the provincial capital of Peshawar, also speaking anonymously, confirmed the total death toll of 124.
“There is a fear of more fatalities,” he said. “None of the provincial government’s initiated measures have been fully implemented to restore peace.”
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.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 79 people had been killed in the region between July and October in sectarian clashes.
The feuding is generally rekindled by disputes over land in the rugged mountainous region, and fueled by underlying tensions between the communities adhering to different sects of Islam.
13 more killed in Pakistan sectarian fighting
https://arab.news/wdx9g
13 more killed in Pakistan sectarian fighting
- Pakistan is a Sunni-majority country, but Kurram district has a large Shiite population and the communities have clashed for decades
- Fresh fighting broke out last Thursday when two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims traveling under police escort were ambushed
Vaughan calls for probe into reports Pakistan stars sidelined from Hundred
- The Hundred is an English 100-ball-per-side franchise cricket competition with eight teams
- BBC says Indian-owned teams may avoid selecting Pakistani players at next month’s auction
LONDON: Michael Vaughan has urged the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to “act fast” on reports that Pakistani players will be overlooked by Indian-owned teams in the domestic Hundred competition.
Longstanding political tensions between India and Pakistan have led to the border rivals only playing each other in international cricket events, although their recent Colombo showdown at the ongoing T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka only went ahead after Pakistan called off a threatened boycott.
It has been claimed that politics has also led to an effective ban on Pakistani players participating in the Indian Premier League, world cricket’s most lucrative T20 franchise competition.
And with several IPL owners now owning teams in several different countries, opportunities for Pakistani cricketers to participate in various leagues are in danger of being reduced further.
The BBC has now reported that the issue could be a factor during next month’s player auction for English cricket’s Hundred, a 100 balls-per-side competition featuring eight franchises rather than the traditional 18 first-class counties.
Players will go under the hammer in London on March 11-12, with the BBC reporting that the four Indian-affiliated Hundred teams — Manchester Super Giants, MI London, Southern Brave and Sunrisers Leeds will deliberately avoid selecting players from Pakistan.
More than 50 Pakistani cricketers have registered their availability, with four other teams involved in the bidding.
The ECB have been unable to substantiate the BBC allegations, but former England captain Vaughan has called for the governing body to investigate the issue thoroughly.
Vaughan, referencing the ECB’s stated aim of cricket becoming the most inclusive sport in the country, posted on Friday on X: “The ECB need to act fast on this... they own the league and this should not be allowed to happen... the most inclusive sport in the country is not one that allows this to happen.”
An ECB spokesman said: “The Hundred welcomes men’s and women’s players from all over the world and we would expect the eight teams to reflect that.
“Almost 1,000 cricketers from 18 nations have registered for The Hundred auction, with representation on the longlist of over 50 players respectively from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies.”
Only two Pakistan internationals — Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim — — appeared in last year’s Hundred, the final edition before new investors became involved.
