Unidentified gunmen opened fireplace on a convoy of 200 buses passing via a distant space of Pakistan, killing not less than 41 folks, together with girls and youngsters.
The automobiles had been attacked whereas passing via Pakistan’s Kurram tribal area near the Afghan border, in accordance with the area’s deputy police chief.
A spokesman for the province stated in a press release that the gunmen initially focused cops escorting the convoy.
Police had been defending the convoy after months of sectarian violence within the space, which has killed dozens of individuals this 12 months.
Police advised the BBC that Thursday’s assault killed 41 folks and significantly injured 16 others.
Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, advised Reuters the assault was “a significant tragedy” and the demise toll “could possibly be increased.” rise” .
Saeeda Bano, who was in the course of the convoy, described to BBC Urdu how she feared she could be killed as she and her kids hid beneath their automobile seats in the course of the assault.
After a couple of minutes the gunfire lastly stopped and he or she noticed injured folks and our bodies mendacity on the street.
Particulars of what precisely occurred are nonetheless rising, however senior authorities official Javed Ullah Mehsud advised AFP that “about 10 attackers” had been concerned, “taking pictures indiscriminately from each side of the street” ”.
Girls and youngsters had been hiding in close by homes and police had been looking the attackers, he added.
He stated in an earlier assertion that a lot of the passengers within the convoy touring via the mountains had been Shia.
Sunni and Shia Muslim tribes have clashed a number of occasions this 12 months. An earlier sequence of assaults ended after a tribal council referred to as for a ceasefire, Reuters reported.
Final month, one other bus assault occurred alongside a freeway within the area, killing 15 folks.
The street the place Thursday’s convoy was touring has solely been reopened in latest days to visitors just for convoys with police safety.
Sectarian violence within the area is commonly linked to land disputes.
Nevertheless, Kurram, positioned in northwest Pakistan, additionally borders a number of Afghan provinces which are house to anti-Shia militant teams, together with the Islamic State group and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
