Humanitarian situation in northwest deteriorating - rights group

About half a million people in the Kurram Agency along the border with Afghanistan, which has seen fierce fighting between rival groups of militants in the past few months, are suffering “horrific violence”, according to a leading human rights activist.

Asma Jahangir, head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), told IRIN the fighting had intensified over the past year and that the government had “lost its writ” in the area.

The situation of ordinary people was grim, as the fighting was sectarian in nature, he said, with militias made up of Sunni Muslims (Pakistan’s majority sect) fighting Shias, who make up around 42 percent of the population in Kurram Agency.

The fact that the Sunni militias are backed by pro-Taliban forces in the predominantly Sunni Kurram Agency means they are well armed and organised, he said. Since April 2007, according to reports in the Pakistani media, at least 700 people have been killed in Kurram Agency and many more injured.

“It is now a really frightening situation for all Shias. We have faced friction before, but nothing like this. Now we are scared our neighbours could report on us or assist militants to come in and kill us, simply because we are Shia,” Aizaz Ali, 50, who lives in Parachinar, the main city in Kurram Agency, about 145km west of Peshawar, told IRIN. Aizaz has now moved his family to Lahore, hoping fighting will soon abate.

Calling on the government to take immediate steps to save people in the area, Jahangir said: “For over a year, the main road connecting the Agency to the rest of Pakistan has been controlled by militants who close it as and when they please. Ambulances have been attacked, innocent people slaughtered, and dismembered bodies in sacks found dumped by the roadside. Communications and water supply systems have been destroyed, and the local economy ruined.”

Soaring food prices

One of the effects of the intermittent transport links with the rest of the country is the soaring price of food in the major towns.

“It can sometimes cost over Rs 800 [approx US$12] to buy a 20kg sack of wheat flour,” complained Aizaz Ali. The same amount of wheat flour costs around Rs 400 (about S$6) in Lahore and other cities.

Last month a government convoy attempting to take food into Parachinar was attacked by militants, leading to a clash in which nine people died, local media reported.

Such incidents are further exacerbating the food crisis and the humanitarian situation in the area, according to analysts and aid groups.

The HRCP and other monitoring organisations have complained in the past about the difficulty they have faced in gaining a true picture of civilian casualties and the humanitarian situation because media teams and NGOs cannot access the area.

“The government needs to ensure that Kurram residents are duly protected,” Jahangir said, adding that the humanitarian situation in the area was deteriorating.

kh/at/cb