The Killing Fields of Kurram

The recent sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shia tribes in Pakistan's Kurram district of north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, which claimed the lives of more than 100 people, have shocked the nation and the region.¹ Initially started as a land dispute, the feud soon snowballed into a sectarian and inter-tribal conflict, which exposed the multiple fault lines of the region ravaged by decades of war and great power politics.²

Leftovers of history

Kurram, originally part of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), lies in the Pashtun belt, divided between Afghanistan and the British Empire through the Durand line drawn in 1893.³ Britishers, whose main interest in the region lies in checkmating Tsarist Russia, adopted a light-touch approach in the region by granting autonomy to the tribes under the Frontier Crime regulations.⁴ Consequently, the socio-economic and political modernization that penetrated the rest of British India never reached the Pashtun tribal belts. Pakistan, which became the successor state of the British empire in 1947, continued the practice of “non-interference” in the tribal region in return for the loyalty of Pashtuns.⁵ The land dispute, which is the proximal cause of current bloodshed, is the result of treating tribal areas as “ungoverned regions.”⁶

The tragedy of Geography

The location of Kurram is unique since it is adjacent to the P2K (Paktia, Paktika, and Khost) belt in Afghanistan and, hence, lies closer to Kabul than any other major city in Pakistan. Within Kurram, both Shias and Sunnis are concentrated in a sharp demarcation of north and south, respectively.⁷ 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which brought this region to the forefront of Afghan Jihad, accentuated the sectarian conflict in the region by transforming the erstwhile inclusive Pashtun identity into Shia and Sunni Muslims. Subsequent events like the post-9/11 “war on terror” have further exacerbated the sectarian gulf in the tribal belt and led to a proliferation of extremist organizations like Sipah-e-Sahaba⁸ Pakistan and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat,⁹ which mainly targeted Shia minorities. Kurram also got dragged into the Syrian civil war when Iran-backed Shia militia group Liwa Zainebiyoun started recruiting from the region to fight Salafis.^{10 11} As a result of these developments, the whole Pashtun tribal belt across the Durand line became a proxy battleground of various sectarian and extremist groups, which destroyed the traditional social fabric and institutions.

Securitization over security

Since 1947, the Punjabi-Mohajir elite of Pakistan has faced a dilemma regarding the Pashtun tribal belt. On the one hand, the continuation of the British policy of “non-interference” was essential to curb the Pashtun irredentism;¹² on the other hand, the region's strategic location makes it an ideal staging ground for operationalizing the “strategic depth” doctrine.¹³ This duality has led to an over-securitized approach of the Pakistan state in the tribal belt at the expense of human security. This has weakened the state's writ in the tribal belt and impedes basic socio-economic reforms like digitizing land records. As a result, even reconciliatory initiatives like the 2008 Muree accords between Shia and Sunni groups have failed to make any impact.¹⁴ The 2017 historic merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was expected to usher in the long-awaited modernization of the tribal belt, is yet to bear fruit due to lackluster governance by PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf), which has been ruling KP for more than a decade.¹⁵ Frontier Corps, which has been deployed in the tribal belt after the withdrawal of the military, has failed to win the trust of the tribals, which has caused a security vacuum at a time when the Pashtuns are feeling squeezed between Afghan Taliban and TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan).¹⁶

Road to reconciliation

Ever since the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan in 2021 and the fall of Imran Khan's government in 2022, the Pashtun tribal belts have been caught in a political quagmire.^{17 18} While US withdrawal has downgraded the international attention on the region, PTI rule in KP has put the province at loggerheads with the Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government of PML-N and PPP. Political repression of PTI by the military establishment and the Shehbaz Sharif government has caused governance fragmentation in the KP at a time when militancy is again gaining ground. Another area that needs urgent attention is the justice delivery system. Many of these feuds result from the collapse of traditional authority and the state's failure to fill the vacuum. Sartaz Aziz's committee recommendations on FATA reforms can act as a blueprint for the state agenda in this context.¹⁹ The chaos in FATA is a tragic symptom of larger malice in Pakistan of poor governance, civil-military discord, and rising sectarianism and fundamentalism in the society. Although the Kurram tragedy needs special attention, the long-term solution lies in a holistic approach rather than various actors working in silos. This needs a more tolerant approach on behalf of the military establishment to accommodate voices from the ground like Manzoor Pashteen led Pashtun Tahafuz Movement. Kurram's bloodbath occurred at a time when PTI supporters were demonstrating in Islamabad for the release of Imran Khan, due to which this whole tragedy was unable to get the media attention it deserved. Hence it is imperative that Kurram doesn’t become another “forgotten conflict” lest it will get repeated.

Footnotes:

1. https://www.voanews.com/a/sectarian-violence-in-pakistan-border-district-claims-more-than-130-lives/7884594.html
2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/2/kurram-clashes-how-a-pakistani-land-dispute-led-to-a-deadly-tribal-battle
3. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/170887/Durand%20Line_History%20Legality%20%20Future_Final.pdf
4. https://portal.mohr.gov.pk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Civil-Political-And-Economic-Rights-Balochistan-Frontier-Murderous-Outrages-Regulation-1901.pdf
5. https://nps.edu/documents/105988371/107571254/FATA_history.pdf/dddf8925-b965-4624-807b-c89f688b81fe
6. https://jns.scholar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf2751/files/jns/files/cgrs_2018_choosing_ungoverned_space.pdf
7. https://ecp.gov.pk/storage/files/3/NA-46%20by%20Abdul%20Qadir%20Khan.pdf
8. https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/03/04/PAK103247.E.pdf
9. https://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/ssp.htm
10. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240425-the-interesting-timing-of-pakistans-zainebiyoun-designation-amid-iran-israel-standoff/
11. https://jamestown.org/program/the-zainabiyoun-brigade-a-pakistani-shiite-militia-amid-the-syrian-conflict/
12. https://capsindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2-Tilak-Devasher.pdf
13. https://www.usiofindia.org/publication-journal/pakistans-strategic-depth-2.html
14. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369893341_Dispute_Resolution_through_Customary_Laws_The_Role_of_2008_Murree_Accord_in_Resolving_Sectarianism_in_District_Kurram
15. https://www.dawn.com/news/1378852
16. https://www.dawn.com/news/1635090
17. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/US-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.pdf
18. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/9/analysis-end-of-imran-khans-term
19. https://safron.gov.pk/SiteImage/Downloads/Report%20of%20%20Committee%20on%20FATA%20Reforms%202016.pdf

Pic Courtsey- Adnan Sami at unsplash.com

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