At least 30 children have died due to drug shortages in part of north-west Pakistan after the regional government closed key roads in and out of the district in an attempt to quell an outbreak of deadly sectarian violence.
The district of Kurram, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, has been a hotbed of sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims for decades, and since July disputes over farmland have escalated.
Violence flared on 21 November when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 42 people, mostly Shias. Nobody claimed responsibility for the assault, which triggered retaliatory gunfire and arson by rival groups in several areas.
At least 130 people have been killed since October. People from both groups have stayed at home out of a fear of being attacked. The regional government has said it will fully open land routes into the district only when armed groups from both sides surrender their heavy weaponry.
Syed Mir Hassan, the medical superintendent at the main hospital in the Kurram district capital, Parachinar, said at least 30 children had died as a result of medicine shortages.
Locals expressed concern about a mounting humanitarian crisis. “We have a shortage of food, medicines, milk and fuel,” said 25-year-old Ahbaab Ali, from Parachinar. He said he was concerned that peoplewould soon run out of all basic necessities. “The provincial and central governments are not paying any heed to the crisis,” he said.
Kurram’s population of 800,000 is divided roughly between Shia, who live in the north on the Afghan border, and Sunni, who live in the south.
The children’s deaths have prompted criticism of the provincial government, which is led by the party of the former prime minister Imran Khan, and the national government, led by the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
Faisal Edhi, a philanthropist and the head of the Edhi Foundation, which supplies medicine and food to stranded people in Kurram, said: “People are in dire need of help. Hospitals lack services and supplies have been shut down. I saw hospitals that did not have oxygen or medicines. X-rays and CT scans were malfunctioning. I appeal to the state to make Kurram its topmost top priority and find a resolution to the sectarian violence.”
Zahid Hussain, a security analyst and author, said the recent bloodshed was unprecedented. He said: “There are two factors that make the crisis so deadly: firstly, the rule of the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan and resurgence of the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal districts and their support for Sunni Muslims; and secondly, Iranian support for Shia Muslims in the district, many of whom belong to Iranian militias.”
Various truces have been announced since the latest round of fighting began, as elders from the two sides try to negotiate a lasting agreement.
Analysts fear that the provincial administration’s inability to quell the violence means it could spill beyond Kurram. Hussain said: “The government is trying to resolve the issue through a tribal jirga [a council of elders]. This shows there is no writ of the state. It is worrisome.”
