At least 42 people were killed in a land feud between tribes in the north-western region, officials said, during days of fighting with machine guns and mortars.
The Sunni Muslim Madagi and Syiah Mali Khel tribes have been fighting since last Wednesday, when a gunman opened fire at a council negotiating a decades-long dispute over farmland, local police official Murtaza Hussain said.
No one was wounded in that attack. But Murtaza said it reignited long-standing religious tensions between the clans, who live side-by-side in the district of Kurram on the border with Afghanistan.
“A ceasefire was achieved in Kurram tribal district through government efforts.
“However, shooting resumed later at night,” said a senior official from the provincial interior ministry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who requested anonymity due to not being authorised to speak to the media.
He said local police had put the death toll at 42 – all men – with 183 wounded, including some women, since last Wednesday.
The death toll had been put at 35 last Sunday, with more than 150 wounded. — AFP
