Eight civilians and two members of the security forces were killed in Thursday’s attack on a convoy of essential goods in northwest Pakistan, the scene of violence between Sunnis and Shiites, a police official reported Friday.
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Despite a ceasefire between the two camps signed on January 1, the convoy was “targeted by fire,” police reported Thursday, in the Kourram district of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province bordering the Afghanistan, whose main roads are closed in an attempt to stem the violence which has left more than 200 dead since July.
“There are reports of five to six drivers being kidnapped by a local tribe,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The “convoy of 35 trucks” carried essential foodstuffs like “rice, flour and oil” from the mainly Sunni south of Kurram to the mainly Shia and today north of Kourram. cut off from the world, detailed a senior police official on condition of anonymity.
It also included two trucks loaded with “medicines” sent by the provincial government, he continued.
-“Following the attack, 21 trucks left the area, but others remained stuck” and “intense gunfights broke out in two other locations,” he added.
Kourram’s large Shiite community is particularly vulnerable, as it must pass through majority Sunni neighborhoods to access basic services and residents have reported shortages of food and medicine.
This was the third convoy to attempt to reach the enclave by road since January 1.
On January 4, armed men had already attacked a previous convoy, injuring several members of the security forces.
Since the resumption of violence in July, several truces have been announced and officials from each camp are working towards a lasting agreement in this former tribal area where codes of honor are strong and where local authorities and security forces have difficulty to impose their law.
Since July, according to consistent sources, 222 people have been killed in the Kourram district.
Regularly, tribal councils announce truces, broken after a few hours, a few days or a few weeks over ancient land disputes that a myriad of agreements supported by tribal dignitaries, politicians and the military were supposed to resolve years ago.
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