At least 42 deaths when attacked on Shiite vehicles in Pakistan

At least 42 deaths when attacked on Shiite vehicles in Pakistan

Peshawar, Pakistan - armed people shot on vehicles on Thursday, the Shiite Muslims in transported northwestern Pakistans . At least 42 people, including six women, were killed and 20 more injured. This represents one of the most deadliest attacks in the region of recent years, according to the police.

attack in the Kurram distribution

The attack occurred in the Kurram district of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where sectarian conflicts between the predominant Sunni and the minority Shiite population have been demanding several dozen fatalities in the past few months.

Unclear about the perpetrators

At first nobody confessed to the latest attack. The incident occurred a week after the authorities had reopened an important road in the region that was closed for weeks due to fatal clashes.

critical injuries to the victims

AZMAT Ali, a local police officer, reported that several vehicles in a convoy from the city of Parachinar to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were on the road when the attackers opened the fire. At least ten passengers are in a critical condition in a hospital.

reactions to the attack

aftab Alam, a provincial minister, confirmed that 42 people were killed in the attack, and the investigators try to find out who is behind the incident. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi described the attack as a "terrorist attack". Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari sentenced the attack to the attack, and Sharif emphasized that those responsible for killing innocent civilians will not be unpunished.

eyewitness reports

The Kurram resident me Hussain, 35, watched four armed men climbed out of a vehicle and fired on buses and cars. "I heard the fire for almost 40 minutes," he said, adding that he had hidden until the attackers had fled.

"I heard the screams of women and the calls of people for help," he continued. Ibne Ali Bangash, a member of one of the victims, described the attack on the convoy as the saddest day in the history of Kurram. "More than 40 people from our community were killed," he said. "It is a shameful matter for the government."

call for security and protest actions

Baqir Haideri, a local Shiite guide, presented the attack as unacceptable and noted that the number of fatalities could continue to rise. He accused the local authorities of having not provided adequate security for the convoy of more than 100 vehicles despite the fear of possible military attacks that had recently threatened the Shiites in Kurram.

The business owners in Parachinar called a strike for Friday to protest the attack.

secondary conflicts in Pakistan

Shiite Muslims present about 15% of the 240 million inhabitants of the Sunni majority country Pakistan, which a long history of the sectarian hostilities between the communities . Although the two groups basically live together peacefully, tensions have been in some regions for decades, especially in parts of Kurram, where the Shiites are in the majority.

since July, as a Land conflict in Kurram broke out , which soon turned into general sectarian violence, dozens of people on both sides were killed.

background to violence in Pakistan

Pakistan fights violence in the northwest and southwest, where militants and separatists often attack the police, troops and civilians. The violence in the northwest is attributed to the Pakistani Taliban, a group of militant that is independent of the Afghan Taliban, but is still tied to it. In the southwestern Balochistan, violence is attributed to the members of the forbidden Baloch exemption army.