Pakistan: 91 Dead in Sectarian Unrest

Source: AP

Pakistan: 91 Dead in Sectarian Unrest

By RIAZ KHAN
The Associated Press
Sunday, November 18, 2007; 6:09 AM

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims clashed Sunday in a northwestern Pakistan town where three days of sectarian violence has left 91 people _ most of them civilians _ dead, officials said. The military said it was sending forces to the area to quell the fighting.

Both sides fired mortars and other heavy weapons at each other in the town of Parachinar late Saturday and early Sunday, targeting residential areas and hitting mosques, an intelligence official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.


Violence between Shiites and Sunnis is common in Parachinar, the main town in the Kurram tribal area. In April, clashes between the two sects, sparked by an attack on a Shiite mosque, left about 50 people dead.

The latest clashes in Parachinar began Friday after gunmen opened fire on a Sunni mosque and Sunnis retaliated by attacking Shiites, police said.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800191.html?hpid=topnews

excerpt from the original article;
The military said it was deploying an unspecified number of soldiers and members of Pakistan's Frontier Constabulary paramilitary force to Parachinar, which is located in Pakistan's remote tribal areas where government authority is limited.

and in a related article

U.S. aims to reshape Pakistan aid
Frustrated by limited knowledge of how funds are spent, Pentagon officials seek to implement new controls and reporting requirements.

WASHINGTON — With the Pakistani government in turmoil, senior Pentagon officials are quietly moving to overhaul the system of massive U.S. military aid to the country by more directly tying the payments to Islamabad's success in combating Islamic militants.

Defense Department officials also want to require detailed accounting of how Pakistan spends about $1 billion in annual payments and greater control by Washington over spending.

snip
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakaid18nov18,0,1773273.story?coll=la-home-center

Let the generals run the war. Politicians have botched up 'the US aid' $ long enough.

the Federally Administered Tribal Areas-won't be easy. Think of them as Indian reservations on steroids, where federal authority has never held sway and the tribes continue unabated from their historic practices in self-government and feuding.

This is messy. I've only seen one article in the last month that treated the matter in a merely simplistic manner. The rest don't even rise to the level of "simplistic", the cultural and political blinders are so thick that they may as well be in an Imax in NYC watching "Fantasia"--they still believe they're actually observing first-hand the Swat Valley or Parachinar even as they sit and swill their soft drinks.