Death toll in Kurram tribal feud rises to 42

At least 42 people have been killed in a land feud between tribes in Kurram district, officials said on Monday, during days of fighting with machine-guns and mortars.

Inter-family feuds are common in Pakistan’s tribal belt but they can be particularly protracted and violent in the mountainous region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where communities abide by traditional tribal honour codes.

The Sunni Madagi and Shiite Mali Khel tribes 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.

No one was wounded in that attack but Hussain said it reignited longstanding religious tensions between the clans, who live side-by-side in the district of Kurram on the border with Afghanistan.

"A ceasefire was achieved in Kurram tribal district through government efforts. However, shooting resumed later at night," said a senior official from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Ministry, who requested anonymity because was not authorised to speak to the media.

He said local police had put the death toll at 42 -- all men -- with 183 wounded, including some women, since Wednesday. The death toll had been put at 35 on Sunday, with more than 150 wounded.