Kurram Agency...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora...
on Wednesday.
According to eyewitnesses, two men tried to attack around 2,000 people watching the final match between the teams of Parachinar and Alizai in the football ground of the Government High School in the town, some 37km east of Parachinar, the administrative headquarters of the tribal agency.
There were conflicting reports about the incident. Political Agent Amjad Ali Khan told newsmen in Parachinar that seeing the two men, who appeared to be wearing boom jackets, approaching the playground Levies Force personnel signalled them to stop but they opened fire. The Levies personnel fired back, killing both men on the spot.
But some residents said the attackers had started firing soon after reaching the ground and one of them went
kaboom!, when primitive returned fire. One of them, Mohammad Najjb, told Dawn that the other attacker lobbed a hand-grenade when he was chased by people.
Panicked by the attack, the spectators ran for cover, the resident added.
He said Siraj Hussain, an employee of a government hospital in the town, and a person identified as Hamid Hussain died in the exchange of fire. Muharrir of the office of the political agent Hashim Khan and two other people were maimed.
Sources said that some
| An Nahar points out: |
The incident happened in Shiite-dominated Alizai area of lower Kurram tribal region where a football match was being played between local teams.
Kurram is one of the seven autonomous tribal districts bordering Afghanistan where Islamist bully boyz rose up against the Pak state in 2004.
Pakistain began a long-awaited push to clear Death Eater bases from the North
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Wazoo tribal district last June after a bloody Taliban attack on Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
airport finally sank faltering peace talks.
The semi-autonomous tribal areas on the Afghan border became a hideout for Islamist snuffies of all stripes in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Pakistain has also been hit by a rising wave of sectarian violence in recent years, most of it carried out by hard boy Sunni Moslem groups targeting Shiites.