Thousands protest against Pakistan deadly sectarian attack

Shiite Muslims hold placards during a protest march against the sectarian attacks in Kurram district in Parachinar. Pics/AFP

Thousands of Shiite Muslims took to the streets in various cities of Pakistan on Friday, AFP correspondents said, a day afer sectarian attacks in the northwest killed 43 people, including women and children.

Gunmen opened fire Thursday on two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims travelling with police escorts in Kurram, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghanistan border with a history of bloody sectarian violence.

IN PHOTOS: Thousands protest in Pakistan after gunmen kill 43 in Kurram

2 hours agoPHOTO GALLERY

Several hundred people demonstrated in Lahore, Pakistan's second city, an AFP photographer there saw.

"We are tired of counting the bodies. How long will this bloodshed continue?" Khanum Nida

Jafri, a 50-year-old religious scholar protesting, told AFP.

"Do our oficials not consider Shiites as part of their own population? When will they wake up?" he said.

"We are demanding peace for our children and women. Are we asking too much?"

Hundreds also demonstrated in Pakistan's commercial hub Karachi.

In Parachinar, the main town of Kurram district, thousands participated in a sit-in, while hundreds attended the funerals of the victims, mainly Shiite civilians, resident Muhammad Ali told AFP.

"Following the funerals, the youth gathered, chanted slogans against the government, and marched toward a nearby security checkpoint," Ali said.

A senior administration oficial, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that "some broke CCTV cameras at the checkpoint... burned tyres and caused damage to property", before the situation de-escalated.

Mobile signal across the district was shut down for several hours, according to the oficial.

"A curfew has been imposed on the main road connecting Upper and Lower Kurram, and the bazaar remained completely closed, with all traffic suspended," he said.

- Tribal feuds -

Clashes have erupted over several months between Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribes in the area, which was formerly semi-autonomous.

Tribal and family feuds are common in Sunni-majority Pakistan, where the Shiite community has long sufered discrimination and violence.

Thursday's attacks also lef 16 people wounded, 11 of whom were in critical condition, senior administrator Javed Ullah Mehsud told AFP.

Mehsud said that a local jirga, or tribal council, has been convened to help restore peace and order.

Previous clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only afer a jirga called a ceasefire.

The latest violence drew condemnation from oficials and human rights groups.

"The frequency of such incidents confirms the failure of the federal and provincial governments to protect the security of ordinary citizens," the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said.

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