பாகிஸ்தான் ஷியா சுன்னி கலவரத்தில் இதுவரை 150 பேர் பலி

ஷியா சுன்னி கலவரத்தில் இதுவரை 150 பேர் பலியாகியுள்ளனர்

பட்டாணிகள் மத்தியில் நடக்கும் இந்த ஷியா சுன்னி கலவரம் ஒரே பட்டாணி ஜாதிக்குள் இருவேறு பிரிவை சேர்ந்தவர்கள் போர் புரிவதையே காட்டுகிறது

இவர்களது வன்முறை மார்க்கம் இவர்களை இப்படிப்பட்ட லூசுகளாக ஆக்கிவிட்டிருப்பது வருத்தத்குரியது

Pakistani sectarian clashes kill about 40 tribesmen
Thu Dec 27, 2007 2:59pm IST


PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities tried on Thursday to get warring Sunni and Shia Pashtun tribes to settle their differences after five days of clashes that have killed about 40 people, officials said.

About 150 people have been killed in the Kurram tribal region bordering Afghanistan since mid-November, fuelling volatility along the frontier where pro-Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants are battling security forces.

The fighting had died down and the two sides had even agreed to a truce but it flared again at the weekend. Authorities said they were hoping peace could be restored at a meeting of tribal elders, known as a jirga.

"We have called a jirga, we're trying to defuse the situation," said political administrator Zahir-ul-Islam.

Sectarian violence has bedevilled Pakistan since the 1980s and Kurram has a long history of such clashes.

Most of the ethnic Pashtun tribesmen in Kurram are Shi'ites, although most Pashtuns on both sides of the border are Sunnis.

A Shia resident, shopkeeper Ali Asghar, said the Sunnis were getting help from Taliban militants.

"The fighting is still going on, we're fighting with the Taliban," said Asghar, speaking from a hospital in the region's main town, Parachinar, where he had taken three wounded relatives.

"There's been no government action against the militants," he said, adding that many people had fled from their homes. Military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said there had been reports of both sides getting help from across the border in Afghanistan. About 40 people had been killed in recent days, he said.

Troops sent to the region in November were still there but there was a limit to how much they could do, he said.

"We are helping the local administration but basically it's the jirgas which are the ultimate solution," Arshad said.

"It's their tribes, their people. Unless they come to some sort of consensus or agreement, only deploying the military won't solve the problem, that's only temporary."

Separately, four boys, three of them brothers and the other a an uncle, were killed on Thursday when a grenade they found near a canal exploded, police said.

Police said it was unclear why a grenade had been dumped by the canal near the central city of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province, but the area is near the border with Baluchistan province where nationalist militants have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider)