ISLAMABAD, 7 October 2006 — Tribesmen from rival sects fired mortars at each other killing 27 people, including a mother and child in northwestern Pakistan, a government official said yesterday.
Rivalry over the possession of a religious site had fueled tension between the two communities in the Orakzai tribal region during the past few weeks. On Thursday night, Sunni tribesmen fired a mortar at the Shiites gathered at the site.
“Fifteen people were killed in the attack,” Sher Alam Khan Mehsud, the political agent or top administrative official for the semi-autonomous tribal region, told Reuters by telephone. In retaliation, Mehsud said, the rival group fired a mortar at a Sunni neighborhood, killing a mother and son. Others were killed during fighting in the day. The tribal belt straddling the Pakistan-Afghan border is awash with weapons, partly a legacy of Mujahedeen war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Mortars and heavy weapons were used by the warring sides and the death toll could rise, the ARYOneWorld television channel said earlier yesterday.
“We have a large presence of security personnel over there and we are trying to restore order,” an official said on condition of anonymity. Officials said the trouble broke out when leaders from the rival sects both tried to occupy the site, with each side claiming it belonged to them. Clashes have also erupted in the neighboring districts of Khurram and Hangu, an official at the Federally Administered Tribal Areas secretariat said, without giving details. After the bloody clashes yesterday authorities ordered deployment of the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
Security for Charles, Camilla
Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will be provided with top-level security when they visit Pakistan later this month, the Pakistani Foreign Office said yesterday.
The assurance came a day after the recovery of two live rockets near President Pervez Musharraf’s official house in the capital Islamabad, and an earlier blast near his army residence in the adjoining city of Rawalpindi.
“Their visit is as per the schedule announced on Thursday and we will provide them with high security,” Pakistan foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP.
She said the British government had not shown any concerns about the royal couple’s visit to Pakistan.b“There is no security concern, nor we have been informed about any,” Tasnim said. The heir to the British throne and his wife will meet Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during their visit.
They are also due to travel to Islamabad, as well as visit northern areas hit by the massive earthquake which struck last year.
