Bannu attack: Bomb targeting ANP leader kills 2 elders

Six others, including ex-MPA Adnan Wazir, injured in the incident.

BANNU: Former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa MPA Adnan Wazir became the latest Awami National Party leader to be targeted by the Taliban on Sunday when a remote-controlled bomb exploded near his vehicle in the Wali Noor area of Frontier Region (FR) Bannu.

At least two tribal elders were killed in the attack, while seven others, including Wazir himself, were injured.

DPO Gul Wali Khan said that Wazir had been on his way to a public gathering in the Jani Khel area, when the explosive device exploded near his vehicle around 9:45am, while he was passing through the Wali Noor area.

“Two tribal elders were killed in the blast,” said the DPO, adding that apart from the ANP leader, two police officials on duty in the area were also injured. DSP Tahir Shah Wazir, who rushed to the site soon after the explosion, said police cordoned off the area and shifted the deceased and the injured, including the ANP leader, to the headquarters hospital immediately.

According to the DSP, Wazir, who had just launched his election campaign, was injured in his right leg. He was in a stable condition, however, when he was shifted to the hospital, the official maintained.

DSP Tahir identified the deceased tribal elders as Malik Mumtaz Khan, an elder of Bakka Khel, and Malik Maqbool Jan, an elder of Jani Khel. He named the other injured in the attack as constables Wasal Khan and Shah Diyaz, Waheedullah, Khan Bahadur, Malik Muhammad Ayub and Amir Muhammad. He added that the injured constables were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

Talking to journalists, the injured Khan Bahadur recalled that the ANP leader’s vehicle had been leading the convoy of ANP supporters when the blast occurred.

“The shockwave lifted me off ground before I fainted… When I regained my senses, I was on my way to the hospital,” he maintained.

Following the incident, a curfew was imposed in most of FR Bannu and a search operation for the perpetrators continued till the filing of this report.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed responsibility for the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2013.