Lets’ get one thing straight: violence in Kurram has nothing to do with land disputes or sectarianism, especially not since 2007. It’s about terrorism. That’s why, despite repeated peace agreements, the central highway running through Kurram all the way to the beak of Parachinar still cannot be accessed without heavy security.
Kurram, or more specifically its capital Parachinar, is an ill-fated lynchpin of Pakistan. It’s an area of immense geographical importance in the country’s fight against terrorism. During the Great Game of the 19th century, the border regions that later comprised the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were designed to be a buffer between the British and Russian empires, and governed accordingly. The fate of these areas saw little to no improvement even after the British left the subcontinent.
It took Pakistan another 71 years just to bring them into the provincial fold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. When FATA was merged in 2018, the old system of governance was abruptly abolished without any new or interim setup in place. This sudden shift left the tribal regions vulnerable and marginalised.
Upper Kurram, with Parachinar at the tip of its beak, is a Shia majority area. Central Kurram is Sunni dominated, and Lower Kurram has a mix of both. Like other tribal agencies along the Pak-Afghan border, Kurram has had its share of land disputes, but that’s a norm in this area. Land disputes naturally align Shias with Shias and Sunnis with Sunnis. Even if only one sect lived there, land disputes would still arise, and people would still side with their respective tribes. So they have nothing to do with sectarian differences.
In the tribal belt along the Pak-Afghan border, enmities over land often persist for decades. Sometimes they are resolved with the help of jirgas; other times, they aren’t. But they never lead to the killing of women and children. That’s a strict no-no in the Pashtunwali code of honour by which the local population lives. However, since 2017, we have seen women and children being targeted in civilian convoys in Parachinar. The locals know these acts are the work of banned terror organisations, and they openly refer to hidden forces at play.
Whatever hope Kurram initially had of entering peaceful times was shattered by two major global events of 1979; the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The reason lies in Kurram’s geography. Like a parrot’s beak Parachinar juts out into Afghanistan, sharing borders with three Afghan provinces: Logar, Paktia, and Nangarhar, while a fourth province Khost shares a border with broader Kurram.
After the creation of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2007, the US drone strikes targeting TTP and Haqqani network hideouts along the Pak-Afghan border forced these militants to seek alternate route in and out of Afghanistan. Amongst Pakistan’s border areas, Parachinar is the closest to Kabul, at only 110 kilometers. Even the route from Peshawar to Kabul is about 280 kilometers. That’s why for the past 17 years, the issue at the heart of Parachinar violence has been neither local nor sectarian; it’s the refusal of the local Shia population to allow extremists and terrorists to use their land for illicit transit between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Initially, both the Shia and Sunni tribes in Kurram resisted the militants. That resistance was the start of violent attacks on the people and convoys of Kurram. A string of false flag attacks on both communities gradually led to some Sunni tribes being intimidated or incited into allowing the TTP to infiltrate their areas. But the Shias of Parachinar did not yield. They no longer wanted to be pawns in the conflicting regional interests of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. That’s when bomb blasts and attacks became frequent in Parachinar. Between 2007 and 2014, around 3,000 people lost their lives to terrorism in Kurram. In fact, Parachinar has faced the most terror attacks in Pakistan after Peshawar.
Banned terror outfits like the TTP have exploited long-standing land disputes in Kurram, turning them into sectarian conflicts to control the travel routes to Afghanistan. There’s only one road that runs from Lower Kurram all the way to Parachinar. The Thall-Parachinar Road is a lifeline for the area, connecting it to the rest of the country and facilitating everything from the delivery of goods and services to the movement of residents. Anyone who controls this road controls the area. That’s why both Shia and Sunni convoys are repeatedly attacked along this route, leading to prolonged closures and severe shortages of basic necessities, deepening the humanitarian crisis of a people already vulnerable to violence and restricted movement.
Another factor that fueled the issue was a claim made by a very senior PPP leader during the 2008 election campaign in Parachinar. He told people at a rally that the area had been ‘sold to America’. Speculations have since been viral that the US or Mossad wants to establish a military base in Parachinar to monitor activities in Afghanistan and Iran. Consequently, both Tehran and Kabul are allegedly keeping physical tabs on the issue.
Safety and security along the Thall- Parachinar Road continues to be a nightmare. Armed terrorists roam freely in Kurram, frequently clashing with security forces. Clearance operation is underway in Kurram, but the long and porous border with Afghanistan makes it difficult for locals to trust the success of ongoing anti-terror operations enough to surrender their weapons and bunkers.
The writer is executive producer, Geo News, mentor, vloger, and rights activist.
Parachinar Bleeds
Lets’ get one thing straight: violence in Kurram has nothing to do with land disputes or sectarianism, especially not since 2007. It’s about terrorism. That’s why, despite repeated peace agreements, the central highway running through Kurram all the way to the beak of Parachinar still cannot be accessed without heavy security.
Kurram, or more specifically its capital Parachinar, is an ill-fated lynchpin of Pakistan. It’s an area of immense geographical importance in the country’s fight against terrorism. During the Great Game of the 19th century, the border regions that later comprised the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were designed to be a buffer between the British and Russian empires, and governed accordingly. The fate of these areas saw little to no improvement even after the British left the subcontinent.
It took Pakistan another 71 years just to bring them into the provincial fold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. When FATA was merged in 2018, the old system of governance was abruptly abolished without any new or interim setup in place. This sudden shift left the tribal regions vulnerable and marginalised.
Upper Kurram, with Parachinar at the tip of its beak, is a Shia majority area. Central Kurram is Sunni dominated, and Lower Kurram has a mix of both. Like other tribal agencies along the Pak-Afghan border, Kurram has had its share of land disputes, but that’s a norm in this area. Land disputes naturally align Shias with Shias and Sunnis with Sunnis. Even if only one sect lived there, land disputes would still arise, and people would still side with their respective tribes. So they have nothing to do with sectarian differences.
In the tribal belt along the Pak-Afghan border, enmities over land often persist for decades. Sometimes they are resolved with the help of jirgas; other times, they aren’t. But they never lead to the killing of women and children. That’s a strict no-no in the Pashtunwali code of honour by which the local population lives. However, since 2017, we have seen women and children being targeted in civilian convoys in Parachinar. The locals know these acts are the work of banned terror organisations, and they openly refer to hidden forces at play.
Whatever hope Kurram initially had of entering peaceful times was shattered by two major global events of 1979; the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The reason lies in Kurram’s geography. Like a parrot’s beak Parachinar juts out into Afghanistan, sharing borders with three Afghan provinces: Logar, Paktia, and Nangarhar, while a fourth province Khost shares a border with broader Kurram.
After the creation of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2007, the US drone strikes targeting TTP and Haqqani network hideouts along the Pak-Afghan border forced these militants to seek alternate route in and out of Afghanistan. Amongst Pakistan’s border areas, Parachinar is the closest to Kabul, at only 110 kilometers. Even the route from Peshawar to Kabul is about 280 kilometers. That’s why for the past 17 years, the issue at the heart of Parachinar violence has been neither local nor sectarian; it’s the refusal of the local Shia population to allow extremists and terrorists to use their land for illicit transit between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Initially, both the Shia and Sunni tribes in Kurram resisted the militants. That resistance was the start of violent attacks on the people and convoys of Kurram. A string of false flag attacks on both communities gradually led to some Sunni tribes being intimidated or incited into allowing the TTP to infiltrate their areas. But the Shias of Parachinar did not yield. They no longer wanted to be pawns in the conflicting regional interests of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. That’s when bomb blasts and attacks became frequent in Parachinar. Between 2007 and 2014, around 3,000 people lost their lives to terrorism in Kurram. In fact, Parachinar has faced the most terror attacks in Pakistan after Peshawar.
Banned terror outfits like the TTP have exploited long-standing land disputes in Kurram, turning them into sectarian conflicts to control the travel routes to Afghanistan. There’s only one road that runs from Lower Kurram all the way to Parachinar. The Thall-Parachinar Road is a lifeline for the area, connecting it to the rest of the country and facilitating everything from the delivery of goods and services to the movement of residents. Anyone who controls this road controls the area. That’s why both Shia and Sunni convoys are repeatedly attacked along this route, leading to prolonged closures and severe shortages of basic necessities, deepening the humanitarian crisis of a people already vulnerable to violence and restricted movement.
Another factor that fueled the issue was a claim made by a very senior PPP leader during the 2008 election campaign in Parachinar. He told people at a rally that the area had been ‘sold to America’. Speculations have since been viral that the US or Mossad wants to establish a military base in Parachinar to monitor activities in Afghanistan and Iran. Consequently, both Tehran and Kabul are allegedly keeping physical tabs on the issue.
Safety and security along the Thall- Parachinar Road continues to be a nightmare. Armed terrorists roam freely in Kurram, frequently clashing with security forces. Clearance operation is underway in Kurram, but the long and porous border with Afghanistan makes it difficult for locals to trust the success of ongoing anti-terror operations enough to surrender their weapons and bunkers.
The writer is executive producer, Geo News, mentor, vloger, and rights activist.
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