No fewer than 38 persons, including women and children, were slain when gunmen opened fire on a convoy of 200 passenger vehicles travelling through a remote part of Pakistan.
The trucks were attacked by the gunmen as they went through Pakistan’s tribal district of Kurram, near the Afghan border, according to the area’s deputy police commissioner.
The gunmen initially targeted the convoy’s police escort, according to a statement from the regional spokeswoman.
Police were protecting the caravan after months of sectarian violence in the area, which has killed scores this year.
The chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, told Reuters that Thursday’s incident was “a major tragedy,” with the dead toll “likely to rise.” At least 11 persons were injured, he stated.
Details of what transpired are still coming; however, Javed ullah Mehsud, a top administration official, told AFP that “approximately 10 attackers” were involved, “firing indiscriminately from both sides of the road.”.
Women and children had sought refuge in surrounding houses while police searched for the attackers, he added.
According to an earlier statement, the majority of the passengers in the convoy that travelled through the mountainous area were Shia.
Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups have battled often this year. A previous spate of attacks halted when a tribal council called for a ceasefire.
Then, last month, there was another attack on passenger vehicles along a road in the region, killing 15.
Sectarian violence is frequently tied to land disputes in the region.
Kurram, in Pakistan’s north-west, has borders with several Afghan provinces that are home to anti-Shia militant groups such as the Islamic State and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
