NA-38 JUI-F candidate escapes bomb attack as 25 killed

JUI-F leader Munir Orakzai and Ainuddin Shakir survive the attack in which 50 were injured. TTP claims responsibility.

KOHAT: A blast during an election rally of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) left 25 people dead and over 50 injured in the Sewak area of Kurram Agency, Express News reported on Monday.

The bomb was planted inside the building that was the venue for the rally of two national assembly candidates representing the JUI faction led by cleric Fazulur Rehman.

Hospital administrator Inayatullah Khan, told Reuters, that 25 people were killed in the blast and the death toll could rise because some victims were critically injured.

JUI-F leader Munir Orakzai, a former Fata lawmaker contesting from NA-38, and  Ain u Din Shakir contesting from NA-37, were sitting on the stage when the blast took place.

Orakzai escaped unhurt while Shakir was slightly injured, Khan said.

The injured were shifted to Parachinar hospital.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, saying its target had been the lawmaker elected as an independent but allied to the outgoing government.

"Basically it was an attack on Munir Orakzai, who was a part of the past government for five years," Taliban spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"He supported the People's Party and ANP government which launched several operations against us," Ehsan told AFP.

The Pakistani Taliban have condemned the elections as unIslamic and directly threatened the main parties in the outgoing coalition, the Pakistan People's Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party (ANP).

Rehman and his JUI faction -- known as JUI-F -- have been a mediator between the authorities and the Taliban, blamed for killing thousands of Pakistanis in a domestic insurgency over the last six years.

Orakzai had joined the JUI-F in February this year. He contested elections from NA-38 tribal area-III, Kurram Agency and has remained undefeated in the previous two elections.

The attack in the Kurram region, an ethnic Pashtun area near the Afghan border, will raise questions about whether the Taliban have expanded their campaign beyond secular parties.

Pakistan's interim Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso strongly condemned the attack and said another national assembly candidate had been injured.

Repeated calls for candidates to be granted more security have failed to stop a wave of attacks, most of them claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

The attack brings to 83 the number of people killed in attacks targeting politicians and political parties since April 11 ahead of Pakistan's general elections on Saturday, according to an AFP tally.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Background

Another JUI-F candidate Haji Mohammad Hashim Shahwani escaped an assassination attempt, on April 26, when his convoy was attacked by a remote-controlled bomb in the Mach district of Kachi in Balochistan.

Earlier on Thursday, Maulana Fazlur Rehman appealed to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) not to carry out attacks on candidates from political parties including the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

Violence increased in the northwest as Pakistan prepares to hold a general election and provincial elections on May 11, which will mark the country’s first democratic transition of power.