A minimum of 38 other folks – together with girls and kids – were killed after unidentified gunmen opened fireplace on a convoy of 200 passenger cars touring thru a far flung space of Pakistan.
The cars have been attacked as they travelled in the course of the tribal district of Kurram in Pakistan, with reference to the Afghan border, in line with the world’s deputy police commissioner.
The gunmen first of all focused the convoy’s police escort, the provincial spokesman stated in a observation.
Police have been protective the convoy following months of sectarian violence within the space, which has claimed dozens of lives this 12 months.
Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, the executive secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, advised Reuters information company Thursday’s assault was once “a significant tragedy”, with the dying toll “prone to upward thrust”. A minimum of 11 other folks have been injured, he stated.
Saeeda Bano – who was once in the midst of the convoy – described to BBC Urdu how she feared she can be killed as she concealed below the auto seats together with her youngsters all over the assault.
When the gunfire in the end stopped after a number of mins, she noticed injured other folks and our bodies mendacity within the highway.
Main points of precisely what took place are nonetheless rising, however Javed ullah Mehsud, a senior management respectable, advised AFP “roughly 10 attackers” have been concerned, “firing indiscriminately from all sides of the street”.
Ladies and kids had hidden in within reach homes, whilst police sought for the attackers, he added.
Maximum the passengers travelling within the convoy in the course of the mountainous space have been Shia, he stated in an previous observation.
Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribes have clashed many times this 12 months. An previous sequence of assaults ended after a tribal council known as for a ceasefire, in line with Reuters information company.
Then final month, there was once every other assault on passenger cars alongside a highway within the area which killed 15 other folks.
The street Thursday’s convoy was once travelling alongside had simplest reopened in fresh days, with trip restricted to convoys with police coverage.
Sectarian violence is steadily related to land disputes within the area.
On the other hand, Kurram, in Pakistan’s north-west, additionally borders a number of Afghan provinces that are house to anti-Shia militant teams, together with the Islamic State team and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
