24 die in religious clashes in Pakistan

BADSHAHKILI, Pakistan --Supporters of two Islamic religious leaders fought gun battles in northwestern Pakistan, leaving at least 24 people dead and 14 injured, officials and witnesses said Tuesday.

The fighting, which began Monday, continued until early Tuesday between followers of the two whose rivalry flared earlier this year over their competing religious radio stations in Khyber Agency, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Sikander Qayyum, a senior security official in Peshawar for Pakistan's tribal regions, said 24 people were killed and 14 injured.

The heaviest fighting was reported in Badshahkili, a village about 14 miles west of Peshawar, where hundreds of supporters of cleric Mufti Munir Shakir attempted to destroy the home of a supporter of Shakir's rival, Pir Saifur Rahman, residents said.

The two sides traded fire with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and hand grenades, residents said. The dead included 19 of Rahman's supporters, most of them Afghans, and five from Shakir's side, Qayyum said.

Security forces shelled Shakir's headquarters in the nearby village of Nala to quell the fighting, said Shah Zaman Khan, a local government spokesman. It wasn't clear whether there were any injuries.

Shah Zaman Khan said 8,000 troops were already in the area because of fighting between the two factions last month that left at least five people dead.

The enmity between Shakir and Rahman was sparked months ago when they started criticizing each other's religious beliefs in broadcasts by their respective radio stations.

The unrest comes amid escalating violence elsewhere along Pakistan's northwestern frontier between pro-Taliban tribesmen and security forces that has raised doubts about the government's ability to manage the region.