Pakistan is deploying some 10,000 troops and 6,000 paramilitary members to prevent sectarian violence during the holy month of Moharram, the interior minister said Wednesday.

Moharram, which begins on Thursday and sees Shiites hold gatherings and processions to mourn the martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussain, is frequently marred by sectarian violence, which has risen markedly in recent years.

Clashes between Sunnis and Shiites led to at least 11 deaths two years ago in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, close to the capital Islamabad.

"We have adopted a pro-active strategy like previous years and some 10,000 personnel from the army and another 6,300 from civil armed forces, including Rangers and Frontier Corps, will be deployed across Pakistan for security during the month of Moharram," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar told a press conference.

Sectarian violence -- in particular by Sunni hardliners against the Shiites that make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's 200 million people -- has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.

In July the leader of an anti-Shiite group behind some of Pakistan's worst sectarian atrocities was killed in a shoot-out with police, along with 13 other militants.

Malik Ishaq and his fellow Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants, including senior commanders, were shot dead in in Punjab.

And Islamic State militants were behind a brutal attack that killed 45 Shiites in Karachi in May, a Pakistani official told AFP Monday, despite the government's long-held stance that the jihadist group does not have a presence in the country.

The worst atrocities, however, have been in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, home to some 200,000 Shiites.

Shiite gatherings and processions during Muharram mark Hussain's martyrdom in the Battle of Karbala, Iraq, in 680 AD.

Hussain is equally revered by Sunnis, but hardliners oppose the public mourning of his martyrdom.

Pentagon chief: US not leaving Afghanistan
Washington (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 - US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday indicated the United States would maintain extra troops in Afghanistan beyond the end of next year.

Under current plans, the United States will draw-down its troop numbers by the end of 2016 from about 10,000 currently to a crew of only about 1,000.

Echoing remarks he made at a NATO meeting in Brussels last week, Carter said it was important for the United States "to formulate options for 2016 and beyond and make adjustments to the planned US presence based on current circumstances."

The Obama administration has come under criticism for its planned withdrawal of forces, with opponents saying the move opens up Afghanistan to more attacks by the Taliban, who just two weeks ago captured the city of Kunduz.

A swift response by US-trained Afghan security forces led to an eventual Taliban retreat.

"It's important to say these things because the narrative that we're leaving Afghanistan is self-defeating," Carter told an Army conference in Washington.

"We're not, we can't, and to do so would not be to take advantage of the success we've had to date."

NATO forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001.

Though the United States represents by far the largest contingent, Carter last week said several NATO defense ministers told him they were open to modifications to current plans.

Death toll from US air strike on Afghan hospital rises to 24: MSF
Kabul (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 - The death toll from a US air strike on an Afghan hospital has risen to at least 24 with two more Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff now presumed dead, the organisation said Wednesday.

Twenty-two other MSF staff who were missing have now been accounted for after the organisation was able to make contact with them, a spokeswoman told AFP.

Nine patients remain missing after the October 3 strike as MSF continues to try and trace their whereabouts, she said.

MSF added that an international fact-finding commission it had called on to probe the strike, which prompted global revulsion, had sent letters to the US and Afghan governments seeking their agreement for it to launch an investigation.

"We have received apologies and condolences, but this is not enough. We are still in the dark about why a well-known hospital full of patients and medical staff was repeatedly bombarded for more than an hour," said Dr Joanne Liu, MSF International President.

"We need to understand what happened and why."

The Pentagon announced on the weekend it would make compensation payments for those killed and injured in the attack, which caused MSF to close the hospital's trauma centre, seen as a lifeline in a war-battered region with scant medical care.