“Of the dead, 66 are Shias and 16 are Sunnis,” said an official from Khurram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
At least 82 people have been killed and 156 injured in a fresh flare-up of violence between Sunnis and Shiites since Thursday in the northwest Pakistansince Thursday in northwestern Pakistan, a member of the local authorities told AFP today, adding that gunfire was still being heard in various places.
“Of the dead, 66 are Shiites and 16 are Sunnis,” said the official, who asked not to be named, from the province’s Kuram district. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Local officials told AFP “fire from light and heavy weapons in various areas”. They clarified, however, that since yesterday, Saturday night, there have been no reports of dead or injured.
On Thursday, about ten attackers opened fire on two convoys carrying Shiite families and a police escort in the mountainous region. At least 43 people were killed, according to authorities.
In retaliation on Friday and Saturday, Shiites raided Sunni neighborhoods, mostly torching hundreds of shops and homes, residents and officials told AFP.
The mobile phone network in Kuram has since been cut, as has traffic on the area’s main arterial road.
Since July, the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Khurram, a mountainous region on the border with Afghanistan, has claimed the lives of around 160 people, according to convergent sources.
Source :Skai
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