Shiite-Sunni gun battles leave 40 dead

Gun battles between majority Sunnis and minority Shiites left at least 40 people dead and 43 wounded in remote northwestern Pakistan after men opened fire on Shiite Muslims, a Pakistani official said.

Authorities had imposed a round-the-clock curfew to control the situation in Parachinar in North-West Frontier Province, bordering Afghanistan, the official said.

The trouble began Friday when gunmen began shooting at Shiites near their mosque, a resident said. Some of the Shiites blamed rival Sunni Muslims and began burning Sunni-owned shops and homes, said a local Sunni leader. He said about 400 homes and shops of Sunni Muslims had been burned by Shiites.