Five killed, seven injured in deadly tribal clash in southwestern Pakistan

Arab News

6 days ago

QUETTA: Five people were killed while seven others were injured in Pakistan's southwestern Killa Abdullah district on Sunday after an armed clash between two tribes, a senior official said.
The clash broke out on Sunday evening between members of the ethnic Pashtun tribes of Achakzai and Kakar, lasting for several hours before tribal elders, the paramilitary Levies force and Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan brokered a ceasefire between them.
'Five people have been killed and seven injured in the latest clashes that erupted between Achakzai and Kakar tribesmen in Killa Abdullah district,' Shahzaib Kakar, commissioner of Quetta Division, told Arab News on Sunday.
He said members of both tribes were involved in 'an old tribal dispute,' adding that both sides agreed to a ceasefire after security forces arrived in the area.
Hayat Achakzai, a local journalist based in Killa Abdullah district, said clashes broke out at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday when members of both tribes came face to face at the district's Tot Adda area.
'Both tribes were engaged in a dispute since March 2025 following a motorbike snatching,' Achakzai said. 'They were chasing each other for the last two weeks but today met with an armed clash.'
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province by land mass but its most backward one by almost all social and economic indicators, has a strong tribal system with powerful chieftains.
Disputes between rival tribes over honor, land and decades-old feuds are common here, often resulting in armed clashes.
Ethnic Baloch militant groups have launched a low-level insurgency against the state for years in Balochistan, accusing Islamabad of exploiting the province's mineral resources and denying locals a share in it.
The government denies the allegations and points to health, development and educational projects that it says have been launched to empower the people of Balochistan.