At least 38 people, including women and children, have been killed as a result of unknown gunmen firing on a convoy of 200 passenger vehicles passing through a remote area of Pakistan.
According to the deputy police commissioner of the area, the vehicles were attacked when they were passing through Pakistan’s tribal district of Kurram near the Afghan border.
The provincial spokesperson said in a statement that the gunmen initially targeted the police escort of the convoy.
Police were guarding the convoy after months of sectarian violence in the area, which has killed dozens of people this year.
Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told Reuters that Thursday’s attack was “a major tragedy”, with the death toll “likely to rise”. He said that at least 11 people were injured.
Details of what actually happened are still emerging, but a senior administration official, Javedullah Mehsud, told AFP that “about 10 assailants” were involved, “firing indiscriminately from both sides of the road”. .
He added that women and children had hid in nearby houses, while the police searched for the assailants.
He said in an earlier statement that most of the passengers traveling in the caravan from the mountainous region were Shias.
This year there have been repeated clashes between Sunni and Shia Muslim tribes. An old series of attacks ended after the tribal council called for a ceasefire, according to Reuters.
This was followed by another attack on passenger vehicles along a road in the area last month, in which 15 people were killed.
Sectarian violence is often linked to land disputes in the region.
However, Kurram, in northwest Pakistan, also borders several Afghan provinces that are home to anti-Shia militant groups, including the Islamic State group and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
