“ALARMING FREQUENCY OF CLASHES”
Last month, at least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a sectarian clash in Kurram.
Previous clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga, or tribal council, called a ceasefire. HRCP said 79 people died between July and October in sectarian clashes.
Several hundred people demonstrated against the violence on Friday in Pakistan’s second city of Lahore and Karachi, the country’s commercial hub.
In Parachinar, the main town of Kurram district, thousands participated in a sit-in, while hundreds attended the funerals of the victims of Thursday’s attack, mainly Shiite civilians.
The latest violence drew condemnation from officials and human rights groups.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) urged authorities this month to pay “urgent attention” to the “alarming frequency of clashes” in the region, warning that the situation has escalated to “the proportions of a humanitarian crisis.”
“The fact that local rival groups clearly have access to heavy weaponry indicates that the state has been unable to control the flow of arms into the region,” the HRCP said in a statement.
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