When unknown gunmen opened fire on a convoy of 200 passenger vehicles passing through Pakistan’s tribal area of Kurram, close to the Afghan border, at least 41 people—including women and children—were killed. The Thursday attack also left sixteen more persons severely injured.
With tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslim clans rising all year long, the caravan was passing through a rural area known for increased sectarian violence. Police accompanied the trucks because of the unstable security situation in the region, which has seen hundreds of lives lost recently from violence between the two groups.
Why Did the Gunmen Target the Police Escort?
According to a province spokesman’s account, the gunmen first concentrated their attack on the police escort of the convoy. Rising tensions, especially following a series of strikes aimed at residents and law enforcement officials, mainly drove the police to be especially safeguarding the caravan.
The chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province declared, “The attack was a major tragedy.” “The death toll is likely to rise,” he remarked, therefore attesting to the intensity of the attack.
How did a survivor of the attack view things?
Traveling amid the convoy, one of the survivors related the horror of the attack. She said of the great anxiety she experienced hiding behind her car’s seats with her kids, begging for their survival as bullets flew.
“I feared that every one of us would die. We disappeared, thinking they wouldn’t find us,” she added. “Look outside and see bodies and injured people laying in the road when the gunfire stopped after what felt like an eternity.”
In what capacity did the attackers participate in the assault?
A senior government officer in the area verified that the assault involved about ten perpetrators. “They fired randomly from both sides of the road, targeting everything in their path,” he remarked. While police started looking for the perpetrators, women and children sought safety in surrounding homes.
Initial accounts state that the majority of the convoy’s passengers belonged to Shia Muslim communities. This is important as, lately, multiple bloody conflicts between Sunni and Shia Muslim clans have occurred in the area.
In what ways has sectional violence affected the area?
The attack is the most recent in a run of sectarian conflicts in the area. Tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslim communities have always existed in the region; violence has only become more common recently. Early this year, the most recent round of attacks stopped when a tribal council demanded a ceasefire.
Further raising questions regarding the safety of visitors in the area, last month, another attack on passenger vehicles along the same road claimed the lives of fifteen individuals.
Why was the road lately reopened for traffic?
Previously violent, the road where Thursday’s fatal attack took place has just lately been reopened after several months of closure. Consequently, road traffic was essentially limited to convoys under police protection. The convoy was passing via this hilly area, where extremist organizations running along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border increased the likelihood of attack.
In what ways might militant groups affect regional violence?
Although long-standing land conflicts are generally associated with sectional violence in the Kurram district, the closeness of the area to multiple Afghan provinces, home of anti-Shia militant groups like the Islamic State ( ISIS) and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has aggravated the problem. These organizations have a history of attacking Shia populations and have participated in several strikes in Pakistan lately.
Officials worry that when more bodies are recovered, and more survivors come to light, the death toll can grow as the inquiry into the incident underlines. Authorities have committed to work quickly to bring those accountable to justice; the incident has attracted broad criticism.
The episode emphasizes the precarious security situation in Kurram and its environs, therefore stressing the increasing risks confronting those stuck between armed organizations and aggressive sectarian groups.
