The Daily Populous Tuesday December 31st, 2024 night edition
Authored by lemonde.fr and submitted by aWhiteWildLion

A truck destroyed by unidentified men, in Kolpur, near Quetta, Pakistan, on January 30, 2024. NASEER AHMED/REUTERS

The main road that connects the Kurram region to the rest of Pakistan has been cut off by the authorities for over 70 days, in an attempt to curb a surge of violence. The region's residents lack basic necessities, including transportation to schools, medicine, firewood and food. The blockade has led to a serious humanitarian crisis, with some 30 children dying over the past two months due to a lack of medical care. Kurram, located in mountainous northwestern Pakistan, is the only district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the Shiite Muslim community, a minority in Pakistan, is the local majority population.

On November 21, the road had been briefly reopened for a convoy, escorted by law enforcement officers, taking men, women and children from Parachinar to Peshawar. The vehicles were ambushed by Sunni militants. The ensuing wave of violence continued for three days, claiming 130 lives.

A long-standing land dispute has pitted the two communities against each other, but the resurgence of violence is rooted in the district's geography. Kurram is located not far from the Durand Line, which marks the modern border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and often serves as a route or landmark for terrorist groups, who have thrived in the region since the Taliban took back Kabul, in 2021. One of the first decisions made by Afghanistan’s new rulers was to free members of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group, the Pakistani branch of the Taliban, who had been imprisoned by the previous government.

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Tall-Log-1955 on December 30th, 2024 at 22:01 UTC »

“I never thought the leopards would eat my face”

michaelclas on December 30th, 2024 at 20:34 UTC »

The irony is palpable

hinterstoisser on December 30th, 2024 at 20:27 UTC »

Haven’t Pakistan been bombing Afghanistan over the last 2-3 weeks?

Ethnically speaking, the Pashtuns in the Khyber Pakhtunwa region are the same as the majority Afghans.

The Durand Line drawn in 1893 by British was never accepted by the Afghans (Karzai and others have reported to say that’s an unacceptable solution).

Taliban has significant presence and influence in the Khyber Pankhtunwa, Sindh and Northern Balochistan. The TTP (Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan) carries out violent attacks regularly