PESHAWAR: Provincial authorities in northwestern Pakistan said on Friday they planned to collect heavy weapons to stop sectarian clashes that have killed hundreds, but tribesmen in the historically lawless region said they would not give up their arms.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 near the border with Afghanistan where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control, has been a flashpoint for sectarian tensions for decades.
Fresh clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims erupted last month, triggering a humanitarian crisis with reports of starvation, lack of medicine and oxygen shortages following the blocking of the main highway connecting Kurram’s main city of Parachinar to the provincial capital Peshawar.
Mohammad Ali Saif, spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, said authorities had decided to dismantle private bunkers — observation posts used in the fighting by both sides — and collect heavy weapons from tribesmen in Kurram to stop the violence.
However, local tribesmen have refused to surrender their weapons, citing concerns about their safety.
“Our weapons are for self-defense, not against the state,” said Jalal Hussain Bangash, a local tribal leader.
Another tribal elder, Zakir Hussain, warned that disarmament would leave the Shiite community vulnerable to attacks. “The government is ignoring ground realities in Kurram,” he said.
“We don’t have medicine in medical stores and edibles in the markets. Previously we would use Afghanistan when the road was closed, but now the Afghan border is also closed for us after the Taliban took over the country.”
Mehdi Hussain, a doctor at the District Headquarters Hospital in Parachinar, told Reuters that more than 80 people, including children, had died in recent weeks due to the lack of medical supplies.
The provincial government and Edhi Foundation have started sending medicines to the region via helicopters.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to establish 35 special economic zones (SEZs) to facilitate businesses and industry, officials said on Friday, amid Islamabad’s efforts to boost foreign investment.
The statement came at a meeting of Board of Investment (BOI) officials, presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to review progress of various ongoing projects, according to Sharif’s office.
Officials briefed the prime minister that they had conducted a survey of the 35 SEZs under the Geographical Information System (GIS) and had extensive data to accelerate the progress of projects in these zones.
More than 200 business-to-business (B2B) agreements have been reached with several Chinese companies and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth $70 million have been signed, they added.
“Work on regulatory reforms should be accelerated to provide a conducive environment for business in the country,” Sharif was quoted as saying by his office.
“An effective and comprehensive roadmap should be created for the completion of B2B agreements with international investors and the implementation of signed memorandums of understanding.”
Pakistan, which has been facing an economic crisis, has been making attempts to boost foreign direct investment in a bid to support its $350 billion fragile economy, with Islamabad seeing a flurry of high-level exchanges with China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Qatar and other countries in recent months.
During the BOI meeting, PM Sharif instructed officials to set investment targets that could be achieved at the earliest.
“Effective marketing of investment opportunities in Pakistan is essential to attract foreign investors,” he said. “Construction of business facilitation centers, organization of road shows and other such measures are very important to bring foreign investment to the country.