KOHAT, June 19: Seven people, two of them children and one woman, were killed and 21 others injured when rival tribes clashed over distribution of irrigation water near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Kurram Agency on Monday, official sources said.

The woman and children belonging to the Malikhel tribe died when a missile hit a house during the clash which continued till late night. Nineteen of the wounded belong to the Malikhel tribe.

Sources said that efforts were under way to negotiate a ceasefire and political administration had engaged elders for the purpose.

The sources said that the fighting erupted at around 8am in which Bangash and Malikhel tribes also used heavy weapons.

According to officials, the fighting started when Malikhel tribesmen living astride the Afghan border, 10km south of Parachinar, tried to lay a pipeline from the springs located near the Bushera village inhabited by the Bangash tribe. The Malikhels wanted to use the water they said fell into the Kurram river to irrigate their land.

However, the Bangash tribe objected to this and said that since the springs were on their territory, the Malikhels had no right to lay the pipeline.

A contingent of militia and Kurram Levies dispatched by the administration failed to end the fighting. The rival tribes had taken positions on the ground and hilltops and the firing was so intense that nobody could enter the area.

An official said that a jirga comprising elders had also been sent to negotiate a ceasefire, but the warring tribes refused to talk to them.

A handout issued by the NWFP governor’s Fata secretariat in Peshawar confirmed the clash but said that only seven people had been wounded.