Over 50 people were killed and 20 others were injured after militants carried out a gun attack on passenger vehicles in the lower Kurram area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan on Thursday.
The gunmen ambushed the vehicles of two convoys in the Kurram district bordering Afghanistan. According to officials, the vehicles were travelling in a convoy from Parachinar to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital Peshawar, when militants opened fire.
Rescue authorities said 50 people, including eight women and five children, and 20 others were killed in the attack. According to local media, there were more than 200 vehicles in the convoy. Most of the victims belonged to the Shia community, news agency PTI reported.
The vehicles were ambushed in areas dominated by the Taliban, a local journalist told PTI. Kurram Deputy Commissioner (DC) Javedullah Mehsud told AFP that “two separate convoys of members of the Shia community were targeted by the terrorists in the Kurram district”.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur condemned the attack and directed the provincial law minister, the chief secretary, and lawmakers from the region to immediately visit Kurram and submit a report after assessing the situation.
He also directed authorities concerned to work on establishing a Provincial Highways Police unit to secure all roads in the province.
The CM extended condolences to the bereaved families and announced financial assistance for the victims’ families. “Targeting innocent civilians is extremely tragic and condemnable. Those involved in this incident will not escape the grip of the law,” he stated.
President Asif Ali Zardari has strongly condemned the attack on passenger vehicles. The chief secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Nadeem Aslam Chaudhary said that the incident is a major tragedy and that the death toll is “likely to rise”.
“There were two convoys of passenger vehicles, one carrying passengers from Peshawar to Parachinar and another from Parachinar to Peshawar, when armed men opened fire on them,” a local resident of Parachinar told news agency Reuters. His relatives were also travelling from Peshawar in the convoy that was attacked.
Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribes have been fighting for several months in Kurram district, in the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The attack comes after 12 security personnel were killed after a suicide bomber rammed an explosive laden vehicle into a joint check post in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The terrorists had tried to attack a joint check post in the Bannu district on Tuesday night but their attempt was thwarted by security forces.
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