Mortars kills 17 Pak tribals in sectarian clash

Kohat (Pakistan), Oct 6: Feuding Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim tribesmen in northwestern Pakistan fired mortars at each other killing 17 people, including a mother and child in northwestern Pakistan, a government official said today.

Rivalry over a Muslim shrine had fueled tension between the two communities in the Orakzai tribal region during the past few weeks.

Yesterday night, Sunni tribesmen fired a mortar at Shi'ites gathered at the shrine.

''Fifteen people were killed in the attack,'' Sher Alam Khan Mehsud, the Political Agent or top administrative official for the semi-autonomous tribal region, told Reuters by telephone.

In retaliation, Mehsud said, Shi'ites fired a mortar at a Sunni neighbourhood, killing a mother and son.

The tribal belt straddling the Pakistan-Afghan border are awash with weapons, partly a legacy of mujahideen war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

While five of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions are pre-dominantly Sunni Muslims, there is a sizeable population of Shi'ite Muslims in Orakzai and neighbouring Kurram agency.

Shi'ites account for around 15 per cent of Pakistan's nearly 160 million population.

Most of Pakistan's Sunnis and Shi'ites live at peace with each other, but over the past two decades thousands of people have been killed in tit-for-tat attacks by sectarian militants.

Reuters