(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-18 16:08

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims fought more battles Sunday in a northwestern Pakistan town where three days of sectarian violence have left more than 60 people dead, an intelligence official said.

Both sides fired mortars and other heavy weapons at each other in the town of Parachinar late Saturday and early Sunday, targeting residential areas and hitting mosques, the official said, spoking on condition of anonymity.

Plumes of smoke were seen billowing from two Sunni neighborhoods in the tribal town early Sunday, and authorities were preparing to deploy army troops, the official said.

The latest clashes in the town, prone to sectarian violence, began Friday after gunmen opened fire on a Sunni mosque and Sunnis retaliated by attacking Shiites.

The unrest has killed a total of 61 people from both sides, including women and children, the intelligence official said.

No one has yet claimed 22 bodies at the main state-run hospital in Parachinar, a doctor at the facility said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. More than 100 people have been injured.

Violence between Shiites and Sunnis - a majority in Pakistan -- is common in Parachinar, the main town in Kurram tribal area. In April, clashes between the two sects, sparked by an armed attack on a Shiite mosque, left about 50 people dead.

While most members of Shiite and Sunni sects live peacefully with each other, extremists on both sides often target each other's leaders and activists. The Sunni-Shiite schism over the true heir to Islam's Prophet Muhammad dates back to the seventh century.

Also Sunday, a bomb exploded on a section of a railway line as a passenger train was crossing it near Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province, bordering Afghanistan, killing one passenger and injuring three others, railroad official Iqbal Khan said.