Pakistani air ambulance delivers medicines to violence-hit district as roads remain closed

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A Pakistani charity used an air ambulance on Tuesday to deliver medicines to a northwestern region where a doctor said 29 children had died in the past two months because life-saving supplies couldn't get through roadblocks following sectarian clashes.

Air ambulances are rarely used in Pakistan but the violence in Kurram district has led to road closures and the deaths of at least 130 people.

The air ambulance will also transport critically ill patients from Kurram to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, Gul Sher Khan, told The Associated Press by phone.

Shortage of food and medicines has persisted in Kurram since October, when armed clashes erupted there between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. The clashes, which started as a land dispute months ago, turned into sectarian violence in November, leaving 130 people dead before authorities brokered a ceasefire.

Though the ceasefire has been holding, the roads haven't reopened yet.

Javed Ullah Mehsud, the deputy commissioner of Kurram, said that elders from rival Shiites and Sunni tribes were in talks for a permanent ceasefire so that thousands of people who have been stranded could travel to other parts of the country.

In November, 52 Shiites, including women and children, were killed after unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of vehicles Though nobody at the time claimed responsibility, some Shiites, after burying the victims, launched attacks on Sunni Muslims. Since then, key roads leading to Kurram have been closed by the government for security reasons.

Mir Hassan Jan, a doctor at a government hospital in Kurram, said 29 children died in the past two months due to the shortage of life-saving medicines. “Hundreds of more patients are at risk as we need uninterrupted supply of medicines in this remote area where snowfall also blocks roads in winter,” he said.

Shiite Muslims make up about 15% of the 240 million people in Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities. Shiites dominate parts of the Kurram district.