JI Orakzai Agency candidate survives bomb attack: Officials

Vehicle of Raj Muhammad, candidate on NA-39 seat, targeted by a roadside IED.

PESHAWAR: Raj Mohummad, a Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) candidate for NA-39 constituency in Orakzai Agency, survived an attack on his vehicle on Saturday, officials said.

Muhammad was on his election campaign in the lower Orakzai Agency area when his vehicle hit an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

“Muhammad remained unhurt in the incident,” said an official of the political administration.

“Raj Muhammad was on his way from Chengana to Ferozkhel when a bomb planted on the roadside went off destroying his vehicle,” the official added.

In a separate incident, an election office of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was attacked around 5:30am on the Pajjagi Road in Peshawar, a police official told The Express Tribune.

“It was a timed device weighing around two kilogrammes that damaged the PTI office along with a few nearby shops,” the police official added.

“The gate and a few chairs were damaged in the blast but nobody was hurt because office was empty at that time,” Khalid Mehmood, a senior police official, told AFP.

This was the first attack on a PTI office in Peshawar.

Official reports state that there have been 48 bomb blasts in April across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), including three suicide attacks. “Sixty-four people have been killed while 263 have been injured,” said the report.

Official sources also said that four schools have been destroyed, some of which were expected to serve as polling stations in the upcoming general elections.