Despite a truce in Pakistan's northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a gunfight between Shia and Sunni groups continued on Saturday, adding two more fatalities to the total number of those killed in Khurram tribal sectarian warfare, which now stands at 124. According to police, the sectarian violence that has been going on for the past 10 days has harmed over 170 persons.
 
Chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur was offered the opportunity to visit the troubled area in person by the province's governor, Faisal Karim Kundi, on Friday. On november 22, after an attack on a convoy of passenger vans in Parachinar that day claimed 47 lives, clashes broke out between the Alizai and Bagan tribes in the region.
 
The death toll rose - 57 when several passengers who had suffered serious injuries eventually passed away.
 
The violence that started in the Bagan Bazaar neighborhood and expanded to Balishkhel, Khar, Kali, Junj Alizai, and Maqbal has resulted in at least 37 deaths and numerous injuries in the previous two days alone.
 
A seven-day ceasefire between the Shia and Sunni communities was mediated by the government on Sunday. Later, the ceasefire was prolonged to ten days. All traffic on the major Peshawar-Parachinar route has been stopped, and mobile and internet services are still unavailable.
 
In order to engage in peace negotiations with leaders of the opposing groups, governor Kundi also intended to send representatives from Kohat division's great peace jirga—a council of tribal chiefs—to Khurram district.
 
 


 

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