Warring tribes agree to ceasefire in Pakistan’s Kurram after clashes leave 30 dead

Pakistani soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint in Parachinar, capital of the Kurram tribal district, on January 22, 2017. (AFP/File)

• The clashes erupted over the ownership of a property between two families that engulfed the volatile district that border Afghanistan
• Most of the villages in the area faced a shortage of food, lifesaving medicines amid closure of roads by authorities to contain unrest

PESHAWAR: Warring tribes in Pakistan’s northwestern Kurram district have agreed to a ceasefire and ended hostilities, officials said on Sunday, following five days of armed clashes in the district that left 30 people dead and 158 wounded over a property dispute.
Located along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Kurram tribal district has witnessed deadly conflicts among tribes and religious groups as well as sectarian clashes and militant attacks.
A major conflict that began in 2007 continued for years before it was ended with the help of a jirga, a traditional assembly of tribal elders, in 2011. The latest clashes over a property broke out five days ago and quickly spread to several villages and nearby settlements.
“Officials with the help of tribal elders have brokered a truce between the two tribes today,” Nisar Ahmad Khan, the district police officer (DPO), told Arab News. “Police are now busy vacating bunkers and trenches from the warring tribes and taking control of those bunkers.”
The clashes erupted over the ownership of a property between two families that engulfed the entire volatile district, according to officials and local politicians.
Dr. Mir Hassan Jan, medical superintendent at the District Headquarters Hospital in Parachinar, the main town in Kurram district, told Arab News on Sunday that medical facilities in the district had so far received 30 bodies.
“We have a total number of 30 dead and another 158 wounded that had been brought or are being treated at the district’s hospitals,” he added.
Most of the villages in the area faced a shortage of food and lifesaving medicines amid clashes and closure of roads by authorities to contain the unrest as the warring sides pounded each other with small and heavy and small weapons.
Sajid Hussain Turi, a politician from the area who served as federal minister for overseas Pakistanis in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s previous administration, said the main focus of civil and security officials was to help reach a ceasefire, which materialized today thorough the support of tribal elders.
“Our priority was to broker a ceasefire first,” Turi said. “[In] the second phase, the jirga will settle the land dispute.”