At least 38 people were killed and 11 others injured in a militant attack carried out on a convoy of 200 passenger vans in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan on Thursday.
The incident occured when armed militants ambushed dozens of vehicles carrying passengers in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, targeting people from the minority Shia community.
The attack is one of the worst in recent years in Pakistan occuring especially in the volatile border region of KPK, which is plagued by an array of radical Islamist terror groups. Although no group has officially claimed responsibility for the attack, the region is known to be under the influence of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has been linked to similar attacks in the area.
The 200 van convoy was en route from Parachinar to Peshawar when reportedly 10 gunmen opened fire. The gunmen initially targeted the convoy’s police escort, the provincial spokesman said in a statement. Police were protecting the convoy following months of sectarian violence in the area, which has claimed dozens of lives this year.
Kurram Deputy Commissioner (DC) Javedullah Mehsud told AFP that two separate convoys of members of the Shia community were targeted by the terrorists in the Kurram district. “Both convoys consisted of around 40 vehicles travelling under police escort.” DC Mehsud further remarked that the attackers were still being pursued, “we are currently searching for [the attackers] in the area.”
Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, the chief secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told Reuters news agency the attack was “a major tragedy”, with the death toll “likely to rise”.
Tensions have existed for decades between armed Shia and Sunni Muslims over a land dispute in the tribal area that borders Afghanistan. Sunni and Shia Muslim tribes have clashed repeatedly this year. In September, more than 50 people were killed and 120 others injured in clashes spread over eight days between Shia and Sunni tribes over a piece of land in Kurram district. The series of attacks ended after a tribal council called for a ceasefire, according to Reuters news agency.
The minority Shia community has also been the target of many terror attacks in Pakistan over the years. The region of Khyber has a number of anti shia groups like the Islamic State and the TTP.
Devastating terror attacks in Pakistan seem to be on a rapid rise, twelve security personnel were killed after a checkpost was targeted in the Mali Khel area of KP’s Bannu only a day back. While only this month a major blast at the Quetta railway station claimed the lives of 26 people while injuring dozens.