2023 District Kurram Parachinar conflict | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the War in North-West Pakistan and Sectarian violence in Pakistan | |||||||
Map of 2023 Kurram District Conflict Zones | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Local Sunni Fighters Pakistani Taliban Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan Lashkar-e-Jhangvi | Local Turi and Bangash Shia Fighters | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
13 killed, 74 injured |
The 2023 Kurram Parachinar conflict started as a land dispute and turned into a series of sectarian clashes that took place in the Kurram District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan near Pak-Afghan Border, from May to July 2023.
The conflict began on May 4, 2023, when a school shooting took place at a high school in Tari Mangal, killing seven people, including five teachers and two labors, [3] According to Deputy Commissioner Saiful Islam, the teacher who died in the initial attack was a Sunni Muslim, while those targeted in the subsequent shooting at the school were Shia Muslims, as reported by Reuters. [4] On July 7, 2023, the conflict turned into war when the clashes erupted between Shia and Sunni tribes in Boshera village after construction on disputed land. The clashes quickly spread to other parts of the district. The town of Parachinar was attacked by missiles from three sides for several days, in which many children were injured, while the town of Sada was also targeted by missiles from unknown places. [5] [6] [7] [8]
The clashes resulted in the deaths of at least 13 people and the injuries of 74 others. The Pakistani government deployed troops to the area to try to restore order, and a one-year ceasefire was brokered with the help of a local jirga, and clashes end in all parts of the district on July 13, 2023. [9]
Parachinar is a town and the capital of the Kurram District in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
The Turi or Torai are a tribe of the Pashtun people, inhabiting the Kurram Valley, in Kurram Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, with a smaller number living across the Durand line in the Paktia province of Afghanistan. They speak Pashto and are adherents of the Twelver Shia sect of Islam. Unlike the majority of Pashtun tribes, The Turis predominantly follow the Shia sect of Islam, because of this and other reasons and land history they are usually tensions between them and the Sunni Pashtun tribes; Mangal and Bangash tribe who also live in Kurram Valley.
The situation of human rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law.
Kurram District is a district in the Kohat Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The name Kurram comes from the river Kwarma in Pashto which itself derives from the Sanskrit word Krumuḥ.
Sectarian violence in Pakistan refers to violence directed against people and places in Pakistan motivated by antagonism toward the target's religious sect. As many as 4,000 Shia are estimated to have been killed in sectarian attacks in Pakistan between 1987 and 2007, and thousands more Shia have been killed by Salafi extremists from 2008 to 2014, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Sunni Sufis and Barelvis have also suffered from some sectarian violence, with attacks on religious shrines killing hundreds of worshippers, and some Deobandi leaders assassinated. Pakistan minority religious groups, including Hindus, Ahmadis, and Christians, have "faced unprecedented insecurity and persecution" in at least two recent years, according to Human Rights Watch. One significant aspect of the attacks in Pakistan is that militants often target their victims places of worship during prayers or religious services in order to maximize fatalities and to "emphasize the religious dimensions of their attack".
After the death of Muhammad in 632, a group of Muslims, who would come to be known as the Sunnis, believed that Muhammad's successor as caliph of the Islamic community should be Abu Bakr, whereas a second group of Muslims, who would come to be known as the Shias, believed that his successor should have been Ali ibn Abi Talib. This dispute spread across various parts of the Muslim world, which eventually led to the Battle of the Camel and Battle of Siffin. Sectarianism based on this historic dispute intensified greatly after the Battle of Karbala. During the battle, Husayn ibn Ali and some of his close partisans, including members and children of Muhammad's household, were killed by the ruling Umayyad Caliph Yazid I. The outcry for revenge divided the early Islamic community, albeit disproportionately, into the Sunni and the Shia. This is known today as the Islamic schism.
The 2007 Kurram Agency conflict began on 6 April 2007 in Kurram Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan when a Sunni gunman on a Friday prayer held by Shia in Parachinar. It left more than 40 people dead and more than 150 people wounded . Tension had been brewing in the area adjacent to the Afghan border since April 1 when the sectarian group Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat taking part in Mawlid when some of Sunni people having guns shot the Shia people.
Sectarian violence among Muslims is the ongoing conflict between Muslims of different sects, most commonly Shias and Sunnis, although the fighting extends to smaller, more specific branches within these sects, as well as Sufism. It has been documented as having gone on from Islam's beginnings up until contemporary times.
In 2007, 34 terrorist attacks and clashes, including suicide attacks, killings, and assassinations, resulted in 134 casualties and 245 injuries, according to the PIPS security report. The report states that Pakistan faced 20 suicide attacks during 2007, which killed at least 111, besides injuring another 234 people. The PIPS report shows visible increase in suicide attacks after the siege of Lal Masjid.
In 2008, Pakistan saw 40 terrorist attacks, which caused 154 fatalities and 256 injuries.
In 2006, 30 terrorist attacks, including 10 of a sectarian nature, took place, leaving 100 people dead and 230 others injured.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2012. Pakistan has faced numerous attacks by insurgents as a result of the ongoing War in North-West Pakistan by the Pakistani military against militant groups, part of the War on Terror. At the same time, there have also been numerous drone attacks in Pakistan carried out by the United States which exclusively target members of militant groups along the Afghan border regions.
On 28 February 2012, approximately 12 militants who were dressed in military uniforms stopped multiple buses on their routes through the Kohistan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. 18 passengers were subsequently taken out of the buses and executed by the militants; 17 of the 18 victims were identified as Shia Muslim residents of Gilgit–Baltistan who were travelling to the city of Gilgit from Rawalpindi, Punjab, while the remaining non-Shia victim was a Sunni Muslim who failed to convince the militants that he was not Shia. The victims were killed on the basis of their religious affiliation with the Shia sect of Islam after identification. Among the dead in the massacre were three children.
Anti-Shi'ism or Shiaphobia is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Shia Muslims because of their religious beliefs, traditions, and cultural heritage. The term was first used by Shia Rights Watch in 2011, but it has been used in informal research and written in scholarly articles for decades.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2013. Some of the incidents are sectarian in nature and the TTP is responsible for a majority of them.
The 1988 Gilgit massacre refers to the state-sponsored mass killing of Shia civilians in the Gilgit District of Pakistan who revolted against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq's Sunni Islamist regime, responsible for vehement persecution of religious minorities as part of its Islamization program.
Terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2017 include, in chronological order:
On 21 January 2017, a bomb was detonated at a vegetable market in Parachinar, in the Kurram Valley of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. At least 25 people were killed and 87 injured by the explosion. Parachinar is the administrative headquarters of the Kurram Agency near the Afghan border. The same area has previously seen several blasts in 2008, February 2012, September 2012, 2013 and in December 2015.
On 4 May 2023, a school shooting took place at a high school in Parachinar, Kurram District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, killing seven people and wounding three police officers. Earlier in the day, a teacher from the same school was shot dead in a separate attack.