PESHAWAR
\nA land feud between tribes in the northwestern part of the country has claimed at least 35 lives since its escalation into an armed battles four days ago, officials said Sunday.
\nTwo tribal groups have been fighting since Wednesday, when a gunman opened fire at a council negotiating a decades-long dispute over farmland, local police official Murtaza Hussain said.
\nWhile no one was wounded in that attack, Hussain said it reignited longstanding tensions between the clans who live side-by-side in Boshehra and Malikhel areas of the district of Kurram on the border with Afghanistan.
\nHussain confirmed that the conflict had \u201cclaimed 35 lives\u201d so far.
\n\u201cThe government and local leaders are attempting to halt the fighting through jirgas (tribal councils), but have not yet succeeded,\u201d he said.
\nInter-family feuds are common in the country.
\nHowever, they can be particularly protracted and violent in the mountainous northwestern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where communities abide by traditional tribal honour codes.
\nA senior government official from Kurram district, who asked to remain anonymous, also gave a death toll of 35 but said 151 more people had been wounded.
\n\u201cAll attempts to resolve the conflict have failed,\u201d he said.
\nA police source, who asked not to be identified, said both sides were using automatic weapons and mortars in fighting focussed around the town of Parachinar, which had been blockaded by law enforcement. \u201cThe area is still witnessing clashes involving the use of both small and large weapons,\u201d the senior Kurram district official said. Traffic on the main roads also remained suspended due to the continuing firing.
\nKurram is part of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a semi-autonomous area that was merged with KP in 2018. The move brought the region into the legal and administrative mainstream, although police and security forces frequently struggle to enforce the rule of law there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR A land feud between tribes in the northwestern part of the country has claimed at least 35 lives since its escalation into an armed battles four days ago, officials said Sunday. Two tribal groups have been fighting since Wednesday, when a gunman opened fire at a council negotiating a decades-long dispute over farmland, local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-421288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n