La route The main link connecting the Kurram region to the rest of Pakistan has been cut off by the authorities for more than seventy days in an attempt to stem an outbreak of violence. The inhabitants lack everything: transport to go to school, medicine, firewood, food. This blockage has led to a serious humanitarian crisis, with around thirty children dying in the last two months due to lack of care. Located in northwest Pakistan, the mountainous Kurram district is the only one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the Shiite Muslim community, a minority in Pakistan, is in the majority.
On November 21, the road was exceptionally opened for a convoy, escorted by police, transporting men, women and children from Parachinar to Peshawar. The vehicles were ambushed by Sunni militants. The violence continued for three days, causing 130 victims.
Terror and death
An old land conflict pits the two communities against each other, but the resurgence of violence is rooted in the geography of Kurram district. It is located not far from the Durand Line which demarcates the modern border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a passage and landmark for terrorist groups, which have prospered in the region since the return, in 2021, of the Taliban to Kabul. One of the first decisions of the new Afghan strongmen was to release members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, imprisoned by the previous government.
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