A ceasefire agreement was reached Dec. 2 between two warring tribes in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province following weeks of clashes that left 130 people dead in Kurram district, along the border with Afghanistan. A Grand Jirga of tribal leaders was called to mediate the truce. The violence exploded Nov. 21, when a convoy of Shi’ite pilgrims traveling to a shrine in Peshawar was ambushed by armed assailants, killing at least 42. The ensuing clashes pitted members of the mostly Shi’ite Bagan tribe against their Sunni neighbors, the Alizai, with shops and homes ransacked and whole villages displaced. A land dispute between the two tribes had also caused clashes that led to 50 fatalities in September.
On Nov. 8, 100,000 local residents joined a peace march between the principal feuding villages, demanding a halt to the fighting and the reopening of the Parachinar-Peshawar highway, which authorities had closed to contain the violence.
Although relatively peaceful in recent years, Kurram district had long been a focus of Sunni militant activity, and has been repeatedly targeted by US drone strikes, as well as air-strikes by Pakistan’s own armed forces. (Jurist, Dunya News, Hindustan Times, Organiser, The Himalayan, Khaama Press, The Atlas News, Al Jazeera, PTI)
Map: USAID via ReliefWeb
