At least 11 killed in fighting between tribes in northwest Pakistan

At least 11 people have been killed and eight injured, including women and children, in tribal clashes in northwestern Pakistan, according to a local official.

After two people received critical injuries in a shooting incident between rival tribes, tensions erupted on Saturday in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Kurram district. What initially caused the shooting was unknown.

Vehicles were targeted in different areas of the district, leading to more casualties, said senior official Javedullah Khan.

Khan claimed that efforts were being made to secure travel routes and restore normalcy. The injured were taken to a hospital.

Former parliamentarian and tribal council member Pir Haider Ali Shah claimed elders had arrived in Kurram to mediate a tribal council’s peace agreement.

He claimed that “the recent firing incidents are regrettable and have hampered efforts for lasting peace.”

At least 25 people were killed last month during clashes between Sunni and armed Shia Muslims over a land dispute.

Although both live peacefully together in the country, tensions have persisted for decades between them in some places, particularly in Kurram, where Shia Muslims dominate in some areas.

Balochistan Liberation Army

In addition, a separatist group in Pakistan’s southwest claimed responsibility for an attack that left 21 people dead on Saturday.

Late on Thursday night, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) reported that its fighters used rocket launchers, grenades, and heavy weapons to attack a coal mine in the Dukki district.

It gave higher casualty figures of 30 dead and 18 injured. Without providing any evidence, Pakistani security personnel were also said to have been fabricated as workers.

If the military didn’t withdraw from the province, it threatened more assaults.

Balochistan is a hotbed of armed movements, with the BLA most prominent among them.

They accuse Islamabad’s central government of exploiting its vast oil and mineral resources to harm the population in its least-populated and largest province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

On Monday, the BLA – designated a “terrorist group” by Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States – claimed responsibility for an attack&nbsp, targeting Chinese nationals near Pakistan’s largest airport.

After their convoy was targeted with an improvised explosive device believed to have been detonated by a suicide bomber, according to the Chinese embassy in Pakistan, at least two of its citizens were killed and a third was hurt.