Nine people were killed and seven wounded Thursday when their vehicle struck a landmine in a remote tribal town of northwest Pakistan hit by sectarian violence, local officials said.

The incident occurred in Dol Ragha village in Kurram tribal district, close to the Afghan border, which has suffered outbreaks of violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

The victims were heading to the village in a van when their vehicle hit a buried landmine, officials said.

"It was an incident of sectarian violence," local administration official Mumtaz Khan official told AFP by telephone.

Intelligence officials said all those killed were Sunni Muslims but the area where the attack took place was a mix of Shiite and Sunni.

"This is a far-flang and hilly area where both Shiite and Sunni are living, we consider this an incident of sectarian militancy," an intelligence official said, requesting anonymity.

Kurran tribal district has for three years been a flashpoint for violence between the minority Shiite and majority Sunni communities.

Shiites account for some 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million.

More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence between the groups since the late 1980s.