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ISLAMABAD —Authorities in Pakistan reported Thursday that "terrorists" sprayed multiple passenger vehicles with bullets in a turbulent northwestern district, killing at least 45 people and injuring 20 others.
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi confirmed to reporters the casualties from the attack in Kurram, which borders Afghanistan.
District police and hospital officials reported that among the dead were security personnel, women and children, and that they expect the death toll to rise. They also stated that the police had launched an operation in the area to track down the assailants.
No group immediately took responsibility for the massacre in a Pakistani district known for sectarian violence between heavily armed Shiite and Sunni Muslim tribes.
Officials in Kurram blame a land dispute for the latest round of sectarian tensions, which led to weeks of armed clashes and killed more than 100 people between August and October.
The fighting compelled authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Kurram is situated, to halt all traffic to and from the district until earlier this month, when tribal leaders brokered a temporary cease-fire between the opposing factions.
Thursday's violence occurred amid a series of militant attacks in several border districts of the province over the past week, resulting in the deaths of at least 20 Pakistani soldiers.
More than 60 Pakistani security personnel have been killed by militant attacks nationwide this month alone, according to official data.
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, commonly called TTP, has been blamed or claimed responsibility for much of the violence in recent years.
The militant outfit is listed as a global terrorist organization by the United Nations, and Islamabad says TTP is orchestrating terrorism against the country from Afghan "sanctuaries."
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch reiterated Thursday her government's long-running complaints, again emphasizing the urgency for Taliban authorities in Afghanistan to act against "terror groups" operating on their territory.
"We have, on several occasions, shared concrete evidence with the Afghan authorities with regards to these terror groups and their operations in Afghanistan, and their continued threat to the security of Pakistan," Baloch said at her weekly news conference in Islamabad.
"We hope that the Afghan authorities will consider terrorism to be a serious threat, not just to the region, but also to their own security, and fulfill their obligations under various international agreements," she said.
Taliban leaders deny they harbor terrorist groups, including TTP, or allow anyone to threaten neighboring countries from Afghan soil.