ISLAMABAD, 11 February 2006 — Four more people were killed in sectarian clashes in and around Pakistan’s northwestern town of Hangu yesterday. The clashes between Shiites and Sunnis followed a suicide attack on an Ashura procession on Thursday. The death toll from the suicide blast and violence since then has risen to 36 and the National Assembly yesterday mourned those killed.
The suicide bombing sparked exchanges of fire between groups of Shiites and Sunnis in and around Hangu, which continued into yesterday morning, said Shiite cleric Maulana Khurshid Anwar.
Two people died in Hangu town and two in the nearby mountain village of Ibrahimzai, Hangu Mayor Ghani-ur-Rehman said.
The shooting in Hangu died down before dawn. But exchanges of fire continued in Ibrahimzai, and in another village named Shahu where more than 100 rockets fell.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao said the army and paramilitary troops had brought the situation in Hangu town under control, but sporadic firing continued in surrounding areas. Religious scholars from both sides were appealing for peace via mosque loudspeakers or from jeeps patrolling the town, he told Geo TV. Troops have also been sent into the mountains around Hangu to flush out armed Sunnis, the region’s deputy police chief Abdul Majeed Marwat said.
“It may take some time, but hopefully the situation will be brought completely under control some time today,” he said, adding that the appeals from clerics should help cool tensions.
In the National Assembly, Minister of State for Interior Wasim Shezad said: “Law and order is primarily the duty of the provincial government, but still the federal government sent sufficient force to keep peace in the region.”
Many members from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the ruling coalition in North West Frontier Province of which Hangu is a town, alleged that some foreign intelligence agencies had hatched a conspiracy to create sectarian disorder in Pakistan.
— Additional input from agencies
