The Pak-Afghan Kharlachi border and the Thall-Parachinar Highway remained closed on Tuesday despite the passage of aid convoys at intervals over the last few days. The highway has now been shut for almost four months.

Trade Union leader Haji Rauf Hussain said on Tuesday that the closure of routes continues to cause a severe shortage of food and medicine in Kurram and the amount of aid being sent by the government is simply not enough for the large population of the district.

Rauf added that at least 500 trucks of goods are needed to fulfil the needs of Kurram. He also said that goods from trucks are being sold as soon as they reach Parachinar.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Drugs and Chemist Association President Muhammad Hanif said all hospitals and pharmacies will remain closed in Parachinar in protest over a lack of medicine being supplied to the area.

Hanif claimed that medicine is the most pressing need of the people in Kurram but trucks carrying them have not been able to enter the area despite being ready for over a month.

On the other hand, the district administration has not been able to resume the demolition of bunkers in the district which has been suspended for several days. Sources in the district administration said that the work should resume soon and bunkers in Balishkhel and Kharkali are expected to be targeted first as they were the most active zone in the tribal conflict.

Kurram has been isolated from the rest of the country for over two months due to an armed conflict between Shia and Sunni tribes in the area. The government managed to broker a peace deal through a grand jirga in the beginning of January. However, the peace was fractured twice in the space of  a few days, first through an attack on Kurram’s DC on January 5 and later by an ambush on an aid convoy on January 16.

However, the government has continued to organise jirgas and is hopeful that a lasting solution can be found for the security situation in the district.