Pakistan tribal area aid appeal

By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Islamabad

Last year saw widespread Sunni-Shia violence

Doctors in Pakistan's north western tribal region of Kurram have appealed for urgent medical aid to avert a humanitarian crisis.

Shia Muslim areas in Kurram have been cut off from the rest of the country since November 2007 following violence between Shias and Sunnis.

The Shia areas are now facing shortages of food and medicines.

Sunni Taleban fighters have been accused of killing truck drivers trying to get supplies to the Shias.

Although Shias are the majority in Kurram, they are surrounded by Sunni tribesmen who have cut off road routes.

In recent years, Taleban bases have sprung up in some Sunni-dominated areas of the region, accentuating sectarian tensions.

Air supplies?

"There is a serious shortage of food as well as medical supplies due to the road blockade," Dr Asghar Jan, head of the main hospital in Parachinar town told the BBC. Parachinar is the headquarters of the Kurram tribal district.

"The government is considering bringing in supplies by air," he said.

He said there were reports that the Afghan government was planning to donate medical aid to the region.

The only road route open into the region runs through Afghanistan's Paktia province.

Jabar Ali is a doctor from Parachinar working in the city of Peshawar who is unable to go visit home because of the blockade.

"My brothers and sisters who are due to sit exams have not been able to go to school because no teachers are available," he told the BBC News website.

"Many teachers have simply left the area because the situation is so bad that people cannot lead normal lives. Everybody suffers from the lack of basic commodities."

He said some people were smuggling necessities such as oil, wheat and sugar into the district.

"They are transporting these commodities using donkeys and horses going over mountains through small channels which were used by the British decades ago. The main roads are blocked and for some these are the only routes into the area."

Shia farmers in Kurram have been forced to sell their produce in Afghanistan instead of the markets in Kohat in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, residents say.

They say some provisions have been coming in from Afghanistan, but they are not sufficient for the local population.

Last month, armed bands of fighters frustrated the government's attempt to take a road convoy of supplies to the upper Kurram region. Several truck drivers, mostly Shias from upper Kurram, were killed in a shoot-out.

Residents say this is the first time that the sectarian conflict has led to a sustained and organised blockade of the region. They blame the Taleban.

The Taleban have a base in the Dogar area in lower Kurram, north east of Parachinar, and another camp in the Bugzai area, to the south east.

Taleban groups also proliferate in the areas further east, and are said to be responsible for the beheading of dozens of Kurram truckers in the Hangu and Darra Adamkhel areas of north west Pakistan.

Kurram served as the most important launching pad for the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1980s. This is because the region is less than 100km (62 miles) from the Afghan capital, Kabul.