Sectarian clashes escalate in Pak town, 8 dead

Parachinar (Pakistan), Apr 7: The Pakistani army used helicopter gunships today to quell clashes between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in a remote tribal town where at least eight people have been killed in fighting, officials said.

The fighting broke out yesterday between the two sects in Parachinar, the main town of the Kurram tribal region, near the Afghan border, in a row over a religious procession.

Authorities imposed a curfew and called out the army to restore order but clashes continued unabated.

Today authorities issued shoot-on-sight orders for anyone violating the curfew.

''Both sides are using heavy weapons in the fighting,'' said Sahibzada Mohammad Anis, top administrator of the tribal region.

He told Reuters that helicopter gunships had fired at the rivals' positions in the morning and would intervene again if the clashes did not subside.

At least eight people were killed and 45 people wounded in the fighting, he said.

Sectarian violence has bedevilled Pakistan since the 1980s, and thousands have been killed in tit-for-tat attacks across the country, although the vast majority of Pakistani Sunnis and Shi'ites live in peace.

Shi'ites account for around 15 per cent of the 160-million population.

Like the rest of Pakistan, the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions have predominantly Sunni populations, although there is a sizable Shi'ite presence in Kurram and neighbouring Orakzai.

Men in the ethnic-Pashtun tribal lands typically bear arms, and the Taliban and al Qaeda have won support among Sunni Muslims in poorer parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

REUTERS