128 children dead in Parachinar since conflict started due to lack of resources: ex-minister

Former federal minister Sajid Hussain Turi on Sunday said that at least 128 children had died in Parachinar since the conflict started almost three months ago due to the lack of resources.

Kurram has remained cut off from the rest of the country due to violent tribal clashes that began there in November, claiming more than 100 lives. All roads in Kurram, including the Parachinar-Peshawar highway, have remained closed to traffic since Nov 21 after a vehicular convoy was attacked in the Bagan area, in which at least 50 people were killed.

However, in a statement posted on X on December 27, the federal government announced that one tonne of medication was transported to Parachinar by helicopter despite the blockade.

“The sick brothers and sisters were transported to Islamabad in the same helicopters in which medicines were delivered by NDMA,” the statement read.

The attack triggered the worst clashes in the district, which resulted in the killing of scores of people from both sides. The conflict escalated when two people were killed and later decapitated after being waylaid on their way towards Parachinar in the Bagan area of Kurram.

A grand jirga convened in Kohat late on Saturday night, including local officials, former lawmakers and tribal elders, held multiple sessions but deferred the agreement. A protest has been ongoing in the area for the past 10 days.

While speaking to DawnNewsTV yesterday, the former minister said that the number of children who have died at the district headquarters hospital (DHQ) in Kurram since the conflict began has reached 37.

“If you accumulate figures from all the hospitals in the surrounding areas, this figure goes up to 128 [children], who died over the last 85 days,” Turi said.

According to a list issued by a local civil society, seen by Dawn.com, a total of 128 children had passed away due to a lack of medicines in the area in the past.

Turi said that given the road was closed for 85 days, the hospitals are in bad condition, the schools are closed, there is no petrol and no gas.

“People are facing a lot of difficulties,” he said, adding that heart patients and mothers in labour have also passed away due to a lack of resources available.

“The situation is very horrible. Eighty-five days is a long time […] the situation has gotten very intense,” he said.

Protests in Karachi

Meanwhile, the religiopolitical Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) has been staging sit-ins across Karachi for the last week against the Parachinar killings by blocking almost all main arteries, according to officials, witnesses, and organisers.

On Sunday, party leaders and activists said they would continue sit-ins across the city after talks with police and city officials remained inconclusive.

“If we give a call for sit-ins across Sindh, the government will not be able to stop it,” MWM leader Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi said in a statement.

“We have spoken to the administration regarding the sit-ins,” he added. “Demonstrators have occupied fixed points at different protests across the city and have left space open for traffic.

“The sit-ins will continue,” Naqvi had said.