At least six people were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a passenger vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district.
Police said the assailants targeted the vehicle with automatic weapons in Ahmad Khan Kallay area of Lower Kurram while it was en route from Para Chamkani to Sadda. The bodies of the victims were shifted to a nearby hospital.
The attackers managed to flee, but a search operation was launched soon after the incident. Regional Police Officer Kohat Abbas Majid Marwat confirmed the deaths and said 12 suspects had been detained and weapons recovered during the operation.
Heavy contingents of police and security forces are conducting house-to-house searches in the area. Authorities vowed that terrorists would not be spared and that peace in the region would be maintained.
Kurram has witnessed repeated bouts of tribal violence, mostly linked to decades-old land disputes that claimed more than 130 lives last year.
After months of clashes, rival tribes reached a ceasefire in January, followed by a year-long peace accord signed in July between the Lower Kurram and Sadda tribes.