The sectarian violence in the Kurram district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has gone out of control, and over 130 people have already been killed in ongoing deadly clashes between Shia and Sunni groups. More importantly, despite a ceasefire call, the local government and federal agencies have failed to stabilize the situation, and the violence ensues in the district.
Reports indicate that several Sunni Islamist outfits have joined hands to target Shias in the region, especially against the banned militant group, Zainabiyoun Brigade. The minority Shia community in Pakistan has blamed the federal security agencies for their biased and lackadaisical attitude in ensuring the safety and security of Shias in the Kurram district. Interestingly, the district is largely Shia-dominated. However, it is surrounded by majority Sunni villages and Afghanistan on the other side.
The highway connecting the district to the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has several Sunni-majority villages, which are allegedly used to attack Shia travelers despite the security provided to their convoys. The recent violence flared in Kurram district on November 21 when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shia Muslims. Nobody claimed responsibility for the assault, which triggered retaliatory firing and arson by rival groups in several areas.
However, enough evidence is available on social media websites indicating a direct involvement of some locals and Sunni groups behind the attack on the Shia-majority convoy. In the retaliatory attacks, Zainabiyoun Brigade, a Shia militant group in the region, targeted the Sunni community and their properties in the district, resulting in several fatal casualties. There is almost a civil war-type situation in Kurram after the violent events of November 21.
Despite a temporary ceasefire between the two groups, violence continued in different areas of the district. People cannot travel, and the scarcity of food and medicine is causing significant hardship. The main highway linking the city of Parachinar with the provincial capital, Peshawar, remains closed to all traffic, leading to shortages of food, fuel, and medicine. Trade and movement at the Kharlachi border with Afghanistan have also stopped.
Only after the casualties of over 130 people did the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Islamabad decide to initiate peace dialogues between Shia and Sunni groups. Some media reports suggest that tensions are running high in Kurram, and people have alleged the involvement of ‘external’ elements in the ongoing violence. Notably, the Zainabiyoun Brigade has been blamed as an alleged proxy of Iran, while Sunni outfits in the region receive support from across the border and Pakistan’s military establishment.
The Shia community fears that the military is deliberately ignoring their plights and allowing local Sunni groups to conduct targeted attacks against the religious minority. The overall security situation of Shias has become worse in Pakistan. Many Shia leaders and human rights activists blame Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Syed Asim Munir, for increasing Sunni radicalism in the country. He is religiously conservative and considered closer to Sunni Islamist outfits. Consequently, anti-Shia Deobandi groups like Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) and Barelvi Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) have become very active in the last two years.
Many targeted attacks have taken place against Shia religious leaders, politicians, and activists in different parts of Pakistan.The rise of militant groups from rival sects has transformed Kurram into a battleground for sectarian dominance. Shias blame Sunni extremist groups - including the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Islamic State-Khorasan, and Lashkar-e Jhangvi - are trying to exterminate or expel them from Kurram. Many of the groups have targeted Shias, whom they see as “apostates.”
In some of the worst violence in Kurram in recent decades, around 2,000 people, mostly Shia, were killed between 2007 and 2011 when the TTP tried to overrun the district. Since July this year, dozens from both sides have been killed in Kurram, when a land dispute turned into general sectarian violence. In addition to local land issues, the deadly sectarian violence in Kurram is also borne out of weak governance and political marginalization.
The “selected” governments in Pakistan and the powerful military, which has an oversized role in domestic and foreign affairs, have also eroded democratic norms and institutions, especially in border provinces like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. In 2019, Pakistan passed a law that granted security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sweeping powers, including detaining suspects indefinitely or without charge.
Moreover, there is increasing anti-Shia propaganda on social media and among local communities in the country. As a result, the violence against Shias in Kurram has become normalized, and the federal government is simply ignoring the emerging situation there. One more reason for the unchecked violence in the region is the sheer ignorance of the Pashtun’s rights in Pakistan.
After the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the minority Pashtun community in the country has witnessed increased racism and targeted violence from terror groups and Pakistan’s military establishment. With the announcement of a new counter terrorism operation in the country, Azm-i-Istehkam (Resolve for Stability), Pashtuns are facing daily attacks, illegal arrests, online racism, and limited supplies of essential food and energy items in the Pashtun-dominated areas.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa witnessed 35 recorded attacks in October, including several major incidents in Bannu, Kurram, Dera Ismail Khan, North Waziristan, and Orakzai, resulting in 64 deaths — 49 of whom were security personnel — and 40 injuries. These figures are going to rise in the coming months as the military establishment has reportedly increased anti-terror operations in Pashtun and Baloch-dominated provinces.
Furthermore, Punjab police have been randomly arresting Pashtun supporters of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) after recent street protests. Under General Munir’s leadership, the Sunni extremism and Punjabi racism against Baloch and Pashtuns have grown substantially. As a result, the Shia-Sunni violence in Kurram and other parts of the country is likely to increase in the coming months.