Dozens killed as sectarian violence flares up in Pakistan’s northwest 

At least 32 people have been killed and dozens wounded in renewed fighting between Sunni and Shia Muslim groups in northwestern Pakistan, officials say.

The violence overnight on Saturday was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, just days after a deadly attack on a convoy in the same area killed dozens of people.

Speaking to AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, a senior administrative official said the death toll in the latest incident included 14 Sunni and 18 Shia Muslims. Another 47 were wounded, the official added.

A senior Pakistani police officer also confirmed Saturday’s fighting to The Associated Press news agency, putting the death toll at 33 and the injuries at 25.

The officer, who also spoke anonymously because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said armed men in Bagan and Bacha Kot torched shops, houses and government property.

Intense gunfire was continuing between the Alizai and Bagan tribes in the Lower Kurram area.

“Educational institutions in Kurram are closed due to the severe tension. Both sides are targeting each other with heavy and automatic weapons,” the officer said.

Videos as well as images posted on social media showed a market engulfed by fire and orange flames piercing the night sky. Gunfire can also be heard.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said a curfew has been imposed in the area and mobile services have been suspended.

“Officials are describing this as a very tense situation,” he added.

“The people on the other hand are complaining that the government and the authorities have failed to provide security to the citizens,” Hyder said, adding that protests are spreading “because of the inability of authorities to rein in the situation, which is spinning out of control”.

Escalating violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan has killed about 150 people in recent months.

On Thursday, gunmen opened fire on two separate convoys of Shia Muslims travelling with police escorts in Kurram, killing more than 40. At least 11 others were wounded.

A group of Shia Muslims then on Friday evening launched an attack targeting Sunni locations, including the Bagan bazaar, in the Kurram district, once a semi-autonomous region, where sectarian violence has resulted in the deaths of hundreds over the years.

“After firing, they set the entire market ablaze and entered nearby homes, pouring petrol and setting them on fire. Initial reports suggest over 300 shops and more than 100 houses have been burned,” a senior police officer stationed in Kurram told AFP.

He said local Sunni “also fired back at the attackers”.

Javedullah Mehsud, a senior official in Kurram, told the AP there were “efforts to restore peace … [through] the deployment of security forces” and with the help of “local elders”.

Shia Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million people in Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities.

Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram.