Sectarian violence is sweeping through the picturesque Kurram district in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after more than 45 Shia travellers were massacred by militants in Bagan town on November 21.
At least 64 people have been killed in three days of clashes between Shia and Sunni tribal groups since then, including 21 killed overnight on Saturday, Dawn reported on Sunday.
Sectarian killings are fairly common in Pakistan, and Kurram has a history of violence rooted in pervasive governance failures, tribal rivalries, and external geopolitical influences.
Shias and Sunnis in Kurram
Kurram is adjacent to the Afghan provinces of Logar, Paktia, Khost, and Nangarhar to the south and east of Kabul, and has multiple border crossings along the 192-km Durand Line to its west, including the historic Peiwar Kotal pass through which the shortest route to the Afghan capital passes.
More than 99% of Kurram’s 7.85 lakh population (2023 census) are Pashtuns belonging to the Turi, Bangash, Zaimusht, Mangal, Muqbal, Masuzai, and Parachamkani tribes. The Turi and some Bangash are Shia, the rest are Sunni.
According to a presentation made before Pakistan’s Election Commission in 2018, Shias make up around 45% of the district’s population, more than thrice their 10-15% share in Pakistan’s population as a whole. The majority of Shias live in Upper Kurram tehsil; Sunnis dominate Lower and Central Kurram.
Upper Kurram has far better literacy and economic development indicators than the Sunni-dominated tehsils. Bagan, on the route from the district headquarters of Parachinar to the Peshawar provincial headquarters, is in Lower Kurram.
Fault lines that persisted
The Shia Turi once controlled much of the land in what is now Upper and Lower Kurram, but are now mostly restricted to Upper Kurram. According to some estimates, as much as 83% of the tehsil’s population is Shia (Turi and some Bangash).
Sectarian tensions are often an extension of persistent tribal rivalries and competition for resources in a region not blessed with abundance. The use of patronage and bribery by the British to “control” the northwestern frontier benefitted certain tribes and clans at the cost of others, which led to deep-seated grievances that continue to surface in the form of land disputes.
Even after the British left, not much changed in the way the region was ruled. Kurram became part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where early 20th century laws applied until as recently as 2018, when FATA was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Developments in the 80s
Three almost-simultaneous developments during the Cold War played a role in shaping today’s tensions.
The Islamic Revolution and creation of a Shia theocracy in Iran in 1979 gave rise to geopolitical competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Kurram became a proxy battleground, with the Iranians and the Saudis backing the Shia and Sunni groups respectively. It was at this time that old tribal fault lines began to assume an overtly sectarian character.
Second, and more important, was the decade-long Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-89, during which Kurram became a launching pad for the US-backed mujahideen, as well as the refuge for (mostly Sunni) Afghans fleeing the conflict. The war triggered a cycle of events that eventually led to the rise of various armed groups and militias in Kurram.
Over the past three decades, several militant groups including the anti-Shia Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and Islamic State, have made Kurram their base, moving back and forth across the porous border with Afghanistan, and using the remote mountainous terrain to their advantage.
The policies of Gen Zia-ul-Haq, the military ruler of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, is the third important historical development that contributed to the present situation in Kurram. Sunni Islamisation was the centrepiece of Zia’s political project, and it gave rise to sectarian tensions across Pakistan. In Kurram, Zia used the influx of Sunni Afghan refugees to weaken the Shia Turi.
Continuing clashes, violence
All these factors triggered intermittent sectarian violence in Kurram, especially after the rise of the Afghan Taliban over the past three decades. The TTP has tapped into local grievances about the lack of governance and development, while feeding off existing sectarian divisions.
Between 2007 and 2011, more than 2,000 people, both Shia and Sunni, were killed, more than 5,000 were injured, and tens of thousands were displaced, according to official Pakistan government data. This year has seen bloodshed since late July when a land dispute between the Mali Khel, a sub-tribe of the Shia Turi, and the mainly Sunni Madgi Kalay tribe in an area south of Parachinar led to the killings of almost 50 people.
Tightened security measures and restrictions on travel have failed to stop repeated tit-for-tat attacks ever since.
People mourn over the graves of relatives who were killed after gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in the Kurram tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Shalozan, Pakistan November 22, 2024. REUTERS 
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