Violence has escalated in the region since November 21, when gunmen opened fire on convoys carrying Shia pilgrims. The attack killed 52 people, including women and children.No group has claimed responsibility for the assault.Kurram is the only district in Pakistan where Shia make up the majority of the population, in contrast to the rest of the country, where Sunnis are the majority. Waves of violence have been unfolding since July, when tensions between Shia and Sunni tribes flared over a land dispute.

The Pakistani government has made efforts to ease tensions. On November 24, government officials brokered a seven-day ceasefire, but it failed to hold.

This week’s death toll marks a significant escalation. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that 79 people were killed between July and October due to sectarian violence.

Javed Ullah Mehsud, Kurram’s deputy commissioner, said talks are under way with tribal elders to negotiate a new ceasefire, and that security personnel have been deployed to enforce peace.The closure of the main highway connecting the city of Parachinar with the provincial capital Peshawar has resulted in shortages of basic necessities like food, fuel, and medicine.Despite the violence, Mehsud said authorities have restored internet and mobile services in the area.

The fighting comes amid an already tense period in Pakistan, as violence surges across the country.In addition to the Shia-Sunni clashes in Kurram, at least 245 people have been killed in attacks and clashes nationwide in November, according to data released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank.The report found that 127 of the victims were members of armed groups, 68 were security personnel, and 50 were civilians.

The crackdown on the protestors was swift. Although Khan’s supporters had managed to reach the centre of the city, by sunset on Tuesday the authorities had dispersed them.One government source told local media that the police had arrested more than 500 PTI supporters and the interior minister said that his wife Bushra Bibi, who had been central to the protest, had left the area.The PTI have claimed that several of their party workers were killed during the crackdown and appealed for an investigation.

Overnight the two sources at a nearby hospital who said that they had received four bodies of civilians with gunshot wounds. Pakistan’s information minister said the authorities had resisted firing on protesters.

Islamabad had been put under lockdown, with a heavy security presence deployed in anticipation of clashes with convoys of PTI supporters.

The convoys were led by PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who was released from prison in October and has since taken a more prominent role in trying to mobilise support for Khan.

Reports say Gandapur and Bushra Bibi have left Islamabad and returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where their convoy had come from.

Protesters were reported to have responded to a “final” call from Khan, asking them to “fight till the end” until their demands are met.

Their destination was D-Chowk near central government buildings in Islamabad, and the site of political rallies and protests since the 1980s.

But only some of the protesters made it that far.

By Tuesday evening – just hours after protesters first reached the square – security officers had successfully cleared the area. As darkness fell, the lights were switched off – with only police officers and paramilitary soldiers left behind.

Khan has been in prison for more than a year on charges he says are politically motivated.

Even from behind bars, the former cricket star has proved a powerful player in Pakistan politics. During elections in February his party, which had been banned from standing and was forced to run candidates as independents, emerged as the single largest bloc.

However, they fell short of a majority and their rivals united to form a new government.

The PTI has called for election results to be overturned because they say the vote was rigged, a claim disputed by the government.

Authorities reopened roads linking the capital with the rest of the country, ending a four-day lockdown, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Wednesday, confirming that the city  had been cleared.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, a key aide to Khan, said hundreds of protesters who had marched to Islamabad demanding the release of the cricketer-turned-politician had been shot and thousands were arrested in the crackdown. In a separate statement, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also said eight people were killed, a claim dismissed by the government.

Police had earlier said no lethal arms were used in Tuesday night’s operation and nearly 1,000 protesters had been arrested.

On Wednesday morning, city workers were cleaning up debris and clearing the shipping containers that had been used by authorities to block roads leading into the capital to halt the protesters’ march.

The protest was called by the PTI, which planned to stage a sit-in to press for the release of Khan, who has been jailed since August 2023 in connection with more than 150 cases. Khan alleges the charges are politically motivated and intended to prevent his comeback in contested elections this year.

Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, spearheaded the convoy that on Tuesday broke through security lines leading to the edge of the Red Zone, which houses government buildings and embassies.

More than 10,000 protesters confronted about 20,000 security personnel in deadly clashes that saw several people killed, including four paramilitary soldiers.

Late on Tuesday, the army took control of D-Chowk, a large square in the Red Zone where protesters had gathered.

PTI announced a “temporary suspension” of the protests, broadcaster Geo News reported on Wednesday.

Mohammad Asim, PTI’s president for the city of Peshawar in the party’s northern stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told news agency Reuters that the party would “chalk out the new strategy later after proper consultation”.

He said Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, a key Khan ally, had returned “safely” to the province from Islamabad. Police are known to be seeking Bibi’s arrest.

Police have arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters since Friday and suspended mobile and internet services in some parts of the country. However, services have now been restored.

The government – which had already introduced a ban on public gatherings -responded by blocking Islamabad’s streets with shipping containers, and bussing in police from across the country.Restrictions also appear to have been brought in on some internet services, while schools and colleges have been shut because of fears of violence.Pakistan’s interior minister said the protesters had been offered an alternative venue for their protest but had refused.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who blamed the protesters for the deaths of the four soldiers on the protesters, dismissed the march as “extremism”.”These disruptive elements do not seek revolution but bloodshed,” he said in a statement.