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On Thursday, gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in Parachinar of Kurram district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Meanwhile, passenger vehicles were going from Peshawar to Parachinar in convoy and similarly a convoy of vehicles was going from Parachinar to Peshawar when a firing incident took place on them. As a result of this firing, 49 passengers were killed and many are still injured.
When the survivors of this attack were asked, they said that when they escaped the bullets and went to a neighboring village or to a safe place, the attackers would have been there too. It was a doomsday scene for them. The majority of those killed were Shia Muslims and the attack was blamed on a rival Sunni tribe. After this incident, a new series of tribal clashes started in the city, in which more than 35 people have been killed so far and several others have been injured. So far, the total death toll in the area is said to be more than 85.
In view of these clashes, a delegation was sent to Parachinar under the supervision of the information adviser of the provincial government, who said that a seven-day ceasefire has been agreed between the tribes. However, a permanent solution has not yet been found. It should be remembered that this problem of Parachinar is not of today but this problem has been bad for many decades.
What is this strain of Parachinar?
The Parachinar tension is mainly due to inter-tribal fighting between two major tribes. Among them, there are Sunni Muslims on one side and Shia Muslims on the other side, between whom clashes are seen. The reason for some clashes among them has also occurred due to the ownership of some lands.
To find out the cause of the tension-filled Parachinar in the Kuram district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, we have to look back to the past.
How old is this tension?
To get to the bottom of the matter, we have to go back about three to four decades when the Soviet Union army came to Afghanistan with the intention of occupying it. It can also be said that the conflicts between these two groups are older than these four decades, but their intensity has been seen only four decades ago.
We divide the Kurram district into two major parts, the upper tip of which is bordered by Afghanistan on three sides is called Upper Kurram and the lower part is called Lower Kurram. Before 2018, it was known as Kurram Agency and was part of FATA.
The majority of Shia Muslims are in Upper Kurram while the majority of Sunni Muslims are in Lower Kurram. Shias are 40-45% of the total population while Sunnis are 55-60% of the total population.
When the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan in 1979, the United States, with the help of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries, sent Mujahideen to fight in Afghanistan by training them and with their help supplied arms there. These Mujahideen were Sunnis and they used to enter Afghanistan through this route taking advantage of the strategic location of Parachinar. In response, the Soviet Union shelled them from airplanes and the Shia Muslims living in Parachinar in Upper Kurram suffered the most because they were closest to the border. While they had nothing to do with this war and Mujahideen.
They blamed Sunni Muslims and rulers for all this, because of which they had to suffer. In view of this, the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia was also intensifying at that time because Saudi Arabia was taking the lead in doing all this to help America. It was at this time that the clashes between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Parachinar increased and have not stopped till now. It should be noted that there are other reasons involved in these clashes, including land disputes between these groups. Such conflicts has contributed a lot in destability of province which is common in both Pakistan’s western province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
A highway leads down from Parachinar which further divides into two branches, one of which also goes to Peshawar. Since then, people travel on this one road only at certain times in convoys with security vehicles. But last Thursday’s incident was done despite security forces accompanying Convoy, which is more alarming.
How to resolve this conflict?
In order to solve the Parachinar problem, the federal and provincial government of Pakistan should mainly play the role of mediation and resolve all kinds of disputes between the parties. The land disputes between the two groups should be resolved as soon as possible and the killers should be given death penalty or amnesty at the will of the relatives of the victims under a Jirga.
What could be the global impact of the Parachinar clashes?
The clashes between the two major sects of Muslims in Parachinar could have an international impact. Such attacks could push Pakistan further up the list of the world’s most dangerous countries and strain Pakistan’s ties with Iranians and Iraqis. If this continues, it is possible that the minority group may take steps towards a separatist movement.
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