At least 38 people were killed and 29 injured when gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in a tribal area of northwestern Pakistan, Reuters reported.

The attack took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, with the gunmen targeting passenger vans traveling from Parachinar in Kurram, forming part of a convoy. Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, the Chief Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, confirmed the incident, which claimed the lives of a woman and a child, with the death toll expected to rise.

According to Ziarat Hussain, a local resident of Parachinar, two convoys of passenger vehicles were ambushed. One convoy was traveling from Peshawar to Parachinar, while the other was on its way in the opposite direction when the attack occurred. Hussain added that his relatives were in one of the affected convoys.

As of now, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the violence, describing it as a “cowardly and inhumane act” in a statement on X. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, also denounced the assault, calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and stressing the government’s duty to ensure public safety.

The area has long been plagued by tensions between armed Shia and Sunni Muslim groups, stemming from disputes over land. This attack follows a similar incident in August, when 23 people were killed in southwest Pakistan after militants stopped vehicles and shot victims based on their ethnicity in Balochistan. These separatist movements in Balochistan have historically targeted people from other regions in a campaign to drive them out of the province.