KURRAM: As the death toll in deadly clashes surged to 133, Chief Minister, KPK, Ali Amin Gandapur attended a Grand Jirga (huddle of the tribal elders) here to figure out a way to contain the hostilities between the Shia and Non-Shia warring tribes.
Following a briefing at the CTD Headquarters at the Police Lines here, CM Gandapur talked to the journalists at a Presser: “We are fighting an enemy that is better equipped and we have to level up at least to be able to overcome one of the biggest challenges of our lives.” His billion-rupee package, when approved by the Cabinet, will include purchase of high-tech drones, sniper rifles with thermal and night vision capabilities, high-tech kits and bombproof vehicles.
CM earlier instructed the concerned authorities to collect all the weapons being possessed by the warring tribes. Meanwhile, the DC on Monday (2nd Dec, 2024), proclaiming, encore a new truce that he said had been agreed upon between the warring Shia & Non-Shia tribes, claimed: “Armed tribesmen were removed from the firing posts while police and forces have been deployed”.
Although due to the synergism of security forces and the tribal elders, magnitude of the bloody skirmishes between Shiaa and Non-Shia tribes shrunk in major part of Kurram, the fighting has claimed eight more lives despite the imposition of ceasefire, as a result the death toll by Sunday (1st of December, 2024) climbed to 133.
Government quarters had augmented their efforts to contain the hostility between the warring Shia and non-Shia tribes (belonging to Bagan, Talo Kunj, Badshah Kot, Irfani Kilay Jalamy and Chadrewal areas), it seems impossible to stop those whose relatives have been gunned down in the name of religion or possession of land. It may be recalled that a KP government delegation met the warring Shia tribesmen as well as Sunni warlords and successfully persuaded the two sides on 24th November for a week-long ceasefire.
According to KP chief minister’s adviser on information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, a ceasefire was agreed for seven days between the tribes, both of which also decided to return each other’s dead bodies and prisoners. In what obviously was a sectarian clash, ten unidentified militants fired from both sides of the road at Shia passengers travelling from Parachinar to Peshawar in a convoy consisting 200 vans here on 21st Nov killing 43 Shia men, women, children (as well as cops escorting them) and injuring thirty.
Newspakistan.tv
