At least 38 killed as gunmen open fire on vehicles carrying Shiites in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying Shiite Muslims in Pakistan’s restive northwest on Thursday, killing at least 38 people, including six women, and wounding 20 others in one of the region’s deadliest such attacks in recent years, police said.

The attack happened in Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where sectarian clashes between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites have killed dozens of people in recent months.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack. It came a week after authorities reopened a key highway in the region that had been closed for weeks following deadly clashes.

Local police official Azmat Ali said several vehicles were traveling in a convoy from the city of Parachinar to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when gunmen opened fire. He said at least 10 passengers were in critical condition at a hospital.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said at least 38 people were killed in the “terrorist attack.” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack, and Sharif said those behind the killing of innocent civilians will not go unpunished.

A witness, 35-year-old Mir Hussain, said he saw four gunmen emerge from a vehicle and open fire on buses and cars.

“I think other people were also firing at the convoy of vehicles from nearby open farm field,” he said. “The firing continued for about 40 minutes.” He said he hid until the attackers fled.

“I heard cries of women, and people were shouting for the help,” he said.

Ibne Ali Bangash, a relative of one of the victims, described the convoy attack as the saddest day in Kurram’s history.

“More than 40 people from our community have been martyred,” he said. “It’s a shameful matter for the government.”

Baqir Haideri, a local Shiite leader, denounced the assault and said the death toll was likely to rise. He accused local authorities of not providing adequate security for the convoy of more than 100 vehicles despite fears of possible attacks by militants who had recently threatened to target Shiites in Kurram.

Shop owners in Parachinar announced a strike on Friday to protest the attack.

Shiite Muslims make up about 15% of the 240 million population of Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities.

Although they live together largely peacefully, tensions have existed for decades in some areas, especially in parts of Kurram, where Shiites are the majority. Nearly 50 people from both sides were killed over a land dispute in July when clashes between Sunni and Shiites erupted in Kurram.

Initially, the clashes between between Sunni Muslims and Shiites began over a dispute on land in July, but then the lingering dispute turned into a sectarian violence, resulting into killing of dozens of people from both sides.

Pakistan is tackling violence in the northwest and southwest, where militants and separatists often target police, troops and civilians. Most of the violence in these areas has been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, a separate militant group but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, and the separatists in southwestern Balochestan province who are mainly members of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army.

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Associated Press writers Asim Tanveer, Rasool Dawar and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Multan, Peshawar, and Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan contributed to this report.