Thousands of Shia Muslims took to the streets in various cities of Pakistan on Friday, AFP correspondents said, a day after sectarian attacks in the northwest killed 43 people, including women and children.
Gunmen opened fire Thursday on two separate convoys of Shia Muslims travelling with police escorts in Kurram, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghanistan border with a history of bloody sectarian violence.
Several hundred people demonstrated in Lahore, Pakistan鈥檚 second city, an AFP photographer there saw.
鈥榃e are tired of counting the bodies. How long will this bloodshed continue?鈥� Khanum Nida Jafri, a 50-year-old religious scholar protesting, said.
鈥楧o our officials not consider Shias as part of their own population? When will they wake up?鈥� he said. 鈥榃e are demanding peace for our children and women. Are we asking too much?鈥�
Hundreds also demonstrated in Pakistan鈥檚 commercial hub Karachi.
In Parachinar, the main town of Kurram district, thousands participated in a sit-in, while hundreds attended the funerals of the victims, mainly Shia civilians, resident Muhammad Ali said.
鈥楩ollowing the funerals, the youth gathered, chanted slogans against the government, and marched toward a nearby security checkpoint,鈥� Ali said.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that 鈥榮ome broke CCTV cameras at the checkpoint... burned tyres and caused damage to property鈥�, before the situation de-escalated.
Mobile signal across the district was shut down for several hours, according to the official.
鈥楢 curfew has been imposed on the main road connecting Upper and Lower Kurram, and the bazaar remained completely closed, with all traffic suspended,鈥� he said.
Clashes have erupted over several months between Sunni and Shia Muslim tribes in the area, which was formerly semi-autonomous.
Tribal and family feuds are common in Sunni-majority Pakistan, where the Shia community has long suffered discrimination and violence.
Thursday鈥檚 attacks also left 16 people wounded, 11 of whom were in critical condition, senior administrator Javed Ullah Mehsud said.
Mehsud said that a local jirga, or tribal council, has been convened to help restore peace and order.
Previous clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga called a ceasefire.
The latest violence drew condemnation from officials and human rights groups.
鈥楾he frequency of such incidents confirms the failure of the federal and provincial governments to protect the security of ordinary citizens,鈥� the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said.
