Tribal clashes in Pakistan's Kurram district have left at least 11 people dead and eight injured, according to a local official cited by AP.
The violence unfolded in northwestern Pakistan after two people were critically injured in a shooting between rival tribes, senior official Javedullah Khan said. It was not immediately clear what triggered the initial shooting, but the confrontation escalated across the district, with vehicles targeted in different areas and further casualties reported.
Khan said authorities were working to secure travel routes and restore normal movement in the area. The injured were taken to hospital. AP reported that the toll included women and children among the wounded, underscoring how quickly tribal violence can spread beyond the original confrontation.
The district, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has faced recurring tension over land, movement and local power. Pir Haider Ali Shah, a former parliamentarian and member of a tribal council, said elders had arrived in Kurram to mediate a peace agreement. He described the latest firing incidents as regrettable and said they had complicated efforts to secure lasting peace.
The new deaths followed a separate period of deadly violence in the district the previous month, when at least 25 people were killed in clashes between armed Shiites and Sunni Muslims over a land dispute. AP noted that although the two communities largely coexist peacefully in Pakistan, sectarian tensions have persisted for decades in some areas, particularly in Kurram, where Shiites form a major presence in parts of the district.
The situation added to a difficult security climate in the country's northwest and southwest. On the same day, a separatist group in Balochistan claimed responsibility for another attack that killed 21 people at a coal mine, highlighting how local disputes, militant violence and separatist attacks can collide across Pakistan's provinces.
For Kurram, the immediate concern was not only the casualty count but whether the latest violence would widen. Officials said the priority was to reopen roads and stop the spread of attacks across the district. Tribal mediation efforts were underway, but the AP report made clear that those talks were being pursued while the conflict was still active.
The report did not identify the dead or say whether the fighting was contained. What it did establish is that the district once again became the scene of deadly communal violence, with local authorities trying to balance security, mediation and access to transport routes while residents absorb another round of loss.
