Roots of the Parachinar Conflict
Land disputes and Afghan wars have created conditions ripe for sectarian violence in Kurram
Protest organized at the Sadda Bazaar by six Sunni tribes of Kurram under the Chay Quomi Ittehad (Six Tribes Union) after the Pewar-Giddo conflict in November 2021. Image: Kurram Such
On November 21, 2024, a Turi tribe convoy under security forces protection was ambushed in Baggan area in Lower Kurram killing more than forty people. Since then, the Tal-Parachinar Road which connects the district with the rest of Pakistan has been blocked for the Turi tribe. This attack continued the episodic violent conflicts over the land that have resurfaced after the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) merger with the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in 2018.
The Pakistan government introduced political, economic and governance reforms in the Newly Merged Districts (NMDs) with the promise to integrate the region in governance, development and, most importantly, the promise of peace. The merger process was followed by the rehabilitation of 1.6 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who had been displaced by military operations against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan since 2005.
The return of IDPs opened up already existing inter and intra tribal disputes over the communal land throughout the merged districts. These land disputes have turned violent in the Kurram district, having claimed hundreds of lives since 2019.
Imperialism and land disputes in Kurram
Political commentators, journalists, bureaucrats and scholars claim the violence has roots in sectarian identities, the presence of militant groups and the Kurram district’s relevance in Pakistan’s “strategic depth” policies vis a vis Afghanistan. Instead, the roots of the ongoing violence can be traced to a factor that has been missing in popular debate: land.
Soon after the 1892 declaration of Kurram as an agency, the colonial state attempted to forcibly tie local tribes to specific regions through a summary land settlement, mapping and cadastres in 1894. This summary land settlement was followed by two land settlements in 1905 and 1945, which categorised tribes as landlords and vassals. While periodic clashes over meadows and stealing cattle remained a constant feature of the Kurram’s history, these incidents never escalated into district-wide conflicts before the colonial land settlement.
“The Pakistani state sustained colonial structures of governing the region by treating the region as strategic depth against Afghanistan’s provocation of a greater Pashtunistan, curtailing Russia’s socialist threat and the unresolved Taliban question that emerged out of these dynamics.”
Imperial wars have had long-lasting socio-political and economic effects on the district. The Kurram district has been consistently impacted by war, which traces itself to the three British-Afghan wars between 1838 and 1919. In 1979, sixty years of relative peace were broken by the first Afghan War. The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 has meant that peace has never been restored in the district.
Before British control over the region, Afghan kings relied on the region and its tribal armies for expansive and defensive wars. High taxes were imposed on the tribes of Kurram when they would rebel. In this period, the Afghan state began to strategically manipulate local tribal rivalries over meadows and forests, a state-society dynamic which has continued till today.
British colonial administrators, aware of the challenges of extracting revenue, created a regime of cheap governance over the region through indirect rule via the Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) in 1901. The Pakistani state sustained colonial structures of governing the region by treating the region as strategic depth against Afghanistan’s provocation of a greater Pashtunistan, curtailing Russia’s socialist threat and the unresolved Taliban question that emerged out of these dynamics. Imperial overtures also brought war economy dynamics, including weapons and drug trade into these districts. Combined with the post-merger governance reforms, which brought weak policing and strict military control over the district administration, these dynamics played a major role in the intensification of the prevailing land disputes.
This article focuses on two major conflicts since the 2018 merger: the Marghai Cheena refugee camp dispute and the Giddo forest dispute. These two disputes show how ‘war making and state making’ have gone together in Kurram, where the state has moved between strategically using its writ to establish Mujahideen camps, and withdrawing its writ to let non-state actors discipline local populations for broader geostrategic goals.
Both disputes have long histories tracing back to the 1960s. These two disputes can be better understood in their particular geopolitical contexts. The Pewar-Giddo dispute was exacerbated by the Pakistani state establishment of the Mujahideen camps near the disputed forests. Similarly, the Pakistani state’s pro-Haqqani Taliban policy put the Turi tribe under siege by Taliban for four years from 2007-2011, when the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakim Ullah Mehsud allocated disputed land in Marghai Cheena to the Chamkani tribe.
Map of Kurram showing sites that are key to the ongoing conflicts over former Afghan refugee camps in Sadda Bazaar, and forest rights in Giddo. Image: OCHA
Land relations and demography of Kurram
Kurram is the scenic valley of the River Kurram at the foot of the Spinghar mountain range. The population is concentrated on fertile land on the banks of the river. In the North, Kurram directly connects to Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
According to the 2017 census, Kurram has 619,553 population, which includes several tribes, including Turi, Bangash, Chamkani, and Mangal. Out of the tribes, the Turi tribe and half of the Bangash tribe are followers of Shia Islam. The remaining tribes are Sunni Deobandis, with government reports indicating 58% of Kurram’s population is Sunni and 42% is Shia.
The Shia tribes of Turi and Bangash are in the majority in Upper Kurram. Some Sunni tribes reside in the hills. In the Lower Kurram, the Sunni tribes Bangash and Orakzai are the majority but most land has historically been controlled by the Turi tribe. Central Kurram is entirely Sunni, where the land is mostly hilly and not suitable for farming.
Ongoing land disputes in Kurram are often among tribes which live in the same village mauza or close to each other. Rival tribes continue to contest each others’ right to land through protests and sit ins, even before violence breaks out.
The Marghai Cheena refugee camp dispute
On July 18, 2020, a clash broke out between Balishkhel and Marghai Cheena. The Ghundi tribe accused the Chamkani tribe of illegally building houses on communal land. Fighting continued for two days and claimed 10 lives from both sides.
Fearing that the land dispute between the two rival tribes from rival Sunni and Shia tribes would escalate into a district-wide sectarian conflict, respected political and social leaders from all tribes and sects asked the state to intervene. These clashes presented an opportunity for the Pakistan state to show that the merging of the districts meant that it could meaningfully resolve complex land disputes.
The Balishkhel village acts as the border between the Shia tribal majority in upper Kurram and the Sunni majority Lower and Central Kurram. The disputed Marghai Cheena communal land is located on the periphery of Sadda Bazaar, the second biggest town in Kurram, an important trade hub and de facto headquarters of Sunni tribes.
The Marghai Cheena dispute began in the 1980s. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, almost two million Afghan refugees arrived in Pakistan. Kurram hosted 34 Afghan refugee camps. Marghai Cheena was one of these refugee camps constructed on communal land outside Sadda Bazaar, jointly claimed by Shia Turis and the Sunni Masuzai tribe. Most Afghan refugee camps were constructed on communal lands, which was a recipe for land disputes in the future.
Afghan refugees were initially welcomed by local tribesmen. Refugee camps created new job opportunities and led to small towns becoming small cities. However, the presence of Afghan refugees also transformed the local Shia Turi tribe into a minority.
In 2005, when Pakistan’s military dictator General Pervez Musharraf ordered the repatriation of Afghan refugees to Afghanistan, the Marghai Cheena Afghan refugee camp was suddenly left empty. Seeing an opportunity to move out of the hills, the Chamkani tribe from Central Kurram began to occupy these empty houses.
In 2006, this led to a clash between the Sunni Masuzai and Chamkani tribes, after the Masuzai of Sadda Bazaar asked the Chamkani to vacate the houses. This was the same year that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Afghan Taliban began to make inroads in the district Kurram.
“When the Turi tribe barred them (the Taliban) from using their routes for cross-border interventions, the TTP began target killing Shia Turis and began to mobilize the Sunni tribes against the Turi tribes blockade of the Taliban”
Initially, the Afghan Taliban and TTP restricted themselves to cross-border attacks on Afghan and NATO forces. However, when the Turi tribe barred them from using their routes for cross-border interventions, the TTP began target killing Shia Turis and began to mobilise the Sunni tribes against the Turi tribes blockade of the Taliban.
The dynamics of tribal conflict changed after well-known TTP commander Hakeem Ullah Mehsud was nominated the head of its Kurram chapter. In April 2007, sectarian clashes broke out in Parachinar city over allegedly blasphemous slogans raised by Sunnis in a Milad procession. The clashes spread throughout the district. The TTP played a key role in organising local Sunni tribes against the Shia Turi tribe villages and blocked the Tal-Parachinar Road for the Turi tribe for four years.
Sadda Bazaar: The second biggest town in Kurram is a Sunni-stronghold from which Shia Bangash were evicted in the 1980s. Image: Kurram Such
In these four years, the Pakistan government had no writ in the district. The Shia villages governed themselves under the leadership of the Anjuman-e-Hussainia (Hussainia Association) while Sunni villages remained under TTP rule. Hakeem Ullah Mehsud directly intervened and resolved the dispute over the Marghai Cheena refugee camp between the Masuzai and Chamkani tribes. The former refugee camp is now known as Mehsudabad, named after the TTP commander for his role in resolving the dispute between two Sunni tribes.
The Chamkani tribe continued to build houses in this disputed land. When peace was restored in 2011 after the Murree agreement between Sunni and Shia tribes, the Marghai Cheena camp had mushroomed into a sizeable housing community.
In 2013, the Marghai Cheena dispute took a new turn when the Turi tribe from the Balishkel village organised sit-ins and protests against the Chamkani tribe’s ‘land grab.’ They demanded the demolition of ‘illegal encroachments’ on communal land. The district government accused the Balishkhel village of threatening the fragile peace.
Multiple jirgas held to resolve the land dispute failed. One political agent imposed section 144 to bar construction and demolished some houses but new construction continued. This led to another outbreak of violence between the Ghundi and Chamkani tribes.
The three tribes at the centre of the land dispute make claims based on different facets: land revenue records, protection tax collection, and customary law. The Ghundi tribe claims land ownership based on land revenue records. Masuzai tribe elders, in online videos, reject the claims, and instead argue that the Balishkhel village used to pay qalang (protection tax) to the Masuzai tribe during the colonial era. They argue that the Balishkhel villagers are tenants without ownership of communal land. The Chamkani tribe, which belongs to the mountain region where no land settlement was carried out, relies on customary law, and reject the colonial land settlement to advance its claim to the Marghai Cheena refugee camp land.
“The failure of the Pakistan government to resettle the Shia Bangash in their homes in Sadda Bazaar continues to create the impression that might is right, and violence is the only way to solve land disputes in the Kurram district. ”
With the dispute in deadlock, whenever clashes begin in Kurram, the Balishkhel, Sadda Bazaar and Khar Kalay frontier sees a breakout of violence. Kurram’s Shia population sees the Marghai Cheena dispute as the continuation of Sunnis encroachment over their lands, which is pushing Shias tribe into the Upper Kurram.
Shia anxieties trace themselves to the Cold War period, when a series of sectarian clashes took place between 1981 and 1986 over the construction of an Imambargah and Muhram procession in Sadda Bazaar, between the Shia Bangash tribe and three Sunni tribes supported by Afghan refugees. These clashes led to the displacement of the Shia Bangash tribe from Sadda Bazaar.
The failure of the Pakistan government to resettle the Shia Bangash in their homes in Sadda Bazaar continues to create the impression that might is right, and violence is the only way to solve land disputes in the Kurram district.
Giddo forest dispute: Communal rights or ownership?
Pewar Village in Upper Kurram, residents of which are currently in dispute with Giddo villagers over the access and ownership of Giddo forest. Image: Pewar View
On October 23, 2021, fighting broke out between Alizai clan of Turi tribe village Pewar and Mangal tribe of Giddo villages over the ownership of Giddo forest land. Clashes continued for two days and claimed 16 lives from both sides.
Pewar is small village, inhabited by Chardai section of Shia Turi tribe, located on the northern end of the Kurram Valley bordering Afghanistan. Its location, next to Pewar Kotal pass which has historically used by merchants and invaders from Central Asia, makes it an important location. Chardai section of the Turis consists of the Duparzai, Ghund Khel and Alizai subtribes. It is surrounded by many picturesque small Sunni Mangal tribe hamlets of Teri Mangal, Haqdara, Sursung, and Gobazana.
The two villages are located at the foot of Spinghar range. Both villages are located at high altitude and experience harsh long winters. In early October, people from these villages start preparing for the harsh winter. Every year, people from both Giddo and Pewar villages fetch wood used as fuel and tree branches as feed for livestock.
Both villages used to collectively protect the forests. According to Pewar village elder, Haji Asghar, “Both villages allowed residents to only fetch wood for one month in Rabi season (April- May) and a one month in Kharif season (October- November). In winters, villagers were allowed to cut tree branches for livestock twice a week.”
The October 2021 fighting broke out when the Shia Alizai tribe claimed that the Mangal tribe unilaterally denied them access to firewood from the Giddo Forest. Both sides began to share online videos advocating their claims and began to organise protests. Mangal sit-ins in lower Kurram were attended by other Sunni tribes in solidarity, and also managed mobilise Sunni tribes from Upper Kurram. The Tal-Parachinar Road was under blockade once again for the Shia population of Upper Kurram.
Kurram’s Shia tribes began a counter sit-in on the Pewar Road, which blocked road access for the Sunni Mangal tribes in Upper Kurram. The Alizai clan of the Pewar village asked the district administration to intervene, arguing that the Mangal tribe had converted a village land dispute into a district-wide sectarian conflict.
The district government responded by arresting tribal elders from both sides, and formed a land commission to resolve all land disputes in the district. The commission’s report has yet to be made public.
The Mangal tribe argues that all the Giddo mauza (estate) belongs to their tribe. Communal rights to access to the Giddo forest are claimed to be trespass and illegal wood gathering. The Alizai clan claims ‘real ownership’ of the Giddo estate, arguing that Mangal elders led to Afghanistan after they were unable to pay the land revenue during British rule. The Alizai tribe accepts Mangal ownership of land in the Giddo village, but argues that they do not have ownership rights in the forest. The Alizai tribe claims the Mangal tribe maintained access to the forest by sharing their agricultural produce with the Pewar village.
The Giddo forest dispute is amongst several disputes over forest access between the Alizai and the Mangal tribes, which includes the Gurutan, Tyaro, and Gobazana forests. In December 2001, a serious dispute led to the loss of several Mangal villages and the Turi tribes being vacated from Gobazana village. Safe travel on Pewar Road and access to water and forests was only restored after a formal agreement.
“The district government responded by arresting tribal elders from both sides, and formed a land commission to resolve all land disputes in the district. The commission’s report has yet to be made public”
Clashes have continued to break out over forest multiple times in the post-1947 period, including 1961 and 1982. The Cold War increased the significance of Pewar and surrounding Mangal villages. The thick forests and high-altitude mountains provided a sanctuary to the Mujahideens fighting in the Afghan war. The government of Pakistan requested the Turi tribe to allow the Afghan refugees and Afghan Mujahideen camp in the mountains of Pewar, for which it paid Pak Rs15,000 per month.
Most Afghan refugees in Kurram shared tribal affinities in Kurram, which allowed the Sunni tribes to become more assertive. Additionally, the association with different factions of the Mujahideens in Afghanistan, brought new weapons and fortified their fellow tribesmen position against the Turi tribe.
In 1986, the Turi tribe blocked routes for Gulbadeen Hikmatyar’s Mujahideen near Pewar because they perceived it will weaken their position in the Kurram valley. These clashes spread throughout the Kurram valley. The Mujahideens, in alliance with local Sunni tribes, attacked Turi villages and torched several villages in Upper and Lower Kurram, which have still not been rehabilitated.
Academics, like Farhat Taj, in the book “The Real Pashtun Question” argue that the 1986 violence was part of General Zia Ul Haq’s containment strategy for Kurram Shias. In the context of the anti-Zakat Shia mobilization in Pakistan and the Islamic revolution in Iran, Zia ul Haq was already annoyed by countrywide Shia mobilisations against the Zakat. Further, he feared growing Shia influence in the country, which was being spearheaded by the Tehreek Nifaz Fiqah Jafaria (TNJF) led by the young cleric Allama Arif Hussain Al-Hussaini, hailing from the Pewar village.
In the past, tribal elders would intervene via jirgas organised by political agents. However, after the FATA merger, the local police office and district administration have proven ineffective due to direct military involvement. Jirgas are now directly organized by military officers, but there is no enforcement of their decisions, which has led to the Pakistan army losing the perception of impartial arbitrator.
Protest in 2021 in Pewar by the Alizai tribe against restrictions on their access to the Giddo forests. Image: Hassan Turi
Land is the cause, land is the solution
Conflicts in Kurram, which take a sectarian turn, have their basis in ongoing disputes over land, water or forest access. Land moving between commodity and strategic terrain are key reasons why these conflicts are not solved.
The colonial land revenue settlement fortified tribal cleavages by creating political-economic hierarchies, which divides tribal access into ownership and access rights. The long history of imperial intervention in Afghanistan have played a key role in amplifying existing conflicts, which includes refugee and displaced population settlement, the creation of a war economy in the region, and policies of strategic depth, which allowed Sunni militant groups to entrench themselves in the social and economic life of Kurram. These dynamics have long-lasting effects on local tribes’ access to the meadows, forests, and cross-border business.
The post-merger transfer of power to police and district administration has failed due to continued military interference. The Pakistani military regularly participates in the ongoing land dispute jirgas with no knowledge of the local land disputes. At the time, the TTP’s regaining a foothold in the newly merged districts suggests that a resolution to the violence in Kurram is still far away.
Sibth ul Hassan Turi belongs to Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is currently a doctoral student at the Center for Conflict Studies at the University of Marburg, Germany.