At least 42 killed in sectarian violence in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Gunmen open fire on buses carrying Shia pilgrims in Kurram, where clashes with Sunnis have escalated in recent months.

Gunmen have opened fire on convoys of Shia pilgrims in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 42 people, according to authorities in the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Women and children were among the fatalities in the attacks in the Kurram tribal district on Thursday, police said on Friday.

Sectarian violence has escalated since July in Kurram, a region bordering Afghanistan, between Shia and Sunni tribes over land disputes.

Gunmen opened fire on two separate convoys of Shia pilgrims travelling with police escorts in Kurram. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Javedullah Mehsud, the deputy commissioner of Kurram, said the attacks took place when the convoys were on their way from the district headquarters of Parachinar to Peshawar.

Mehsud told Al Jazeera on Friday that all the bodies had been recovered and burials would be conducted later in the day.

Police said 20 people were wounded.

“We also managed to recover 26 people belonging to the Shia community last night, including women and children, who were kept hostage by Sunni groups,” Mehsud said.

Ajmeer Hussain, 28, survived the attack.

“Gunfire suddenly erupted and I started reciting my prayers, thinking these were my final moments,” Hussain told the AFP news agency.

“I lay down at the feet of the two passengers sitting next to me. Both of them were struck by multiple bullets and died instantly,” he said.

“The shooting lasted for about five minutes.”

Condemning the attacks, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said, “The enemies of peace in the country have attacked a convoy of innocent citizens, an act that amounts to sheer brutality.”

Mehmood Ali Jan, a local tribal elder, told Al Jazeera that locals were furious with the authorities, especially law enforcement which was supposed to provide security to the convoys but failed to do so.

“People are planning to gather in Parachinar to protest against the security forces,” Ali Jan said.

The attacks came days after at least 20 soldiers were killed in separate incidents in the province. In October, 11 people were killed in tribal clashes in Kurram.

Kurram has a long history of sectarian strife between Shia and Sunni groups. More than 2,000 people were killed in the deadliest period of violence between 2007 and 2011.

The mountainous region adjacent to Afghanistan’s Khost, Paktia, and Nangarhar provinces has also become a hotspot for armed groups, with frequent attacks by the Pakistan Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), and ISIL (ISIS).

Earlier this month, thousands gathered for a peace march in Parachinar, urging the government to enhance security for Kurram’s 800,000 residents, of whom more than 45 percent belong to the Shia minority.

Commenting on Thursday’s attacks, Mehsud said: “There is naturally a lot of anger and fury among the people in the area … This was a land dispute which has now turned into a tribal-cum-sectarian rift but we have full support of tribal elders not only from Kurram but also other areas.”

The authorities cannot rule out the presence of militants in this attack, he said, but investigations are continuing.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies