PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber killed a provincial lawmaker and his brother Tuesday in Pakistan’s northwest Swat valley, where the military claims to have quashed a Taliban uprising.
A man with explosives strapped to his body walked apparently unchallenged into the grounds of a property owned by provincial assembly member Shamsher Ali Khan and blew himself up, killing the two men and wounding several others, officials said.
The attack against a member of the Awami National Party, which dominates the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) assembly, came as Taliban insurgents stage a wave of attacks avenging a multi-pronged military offensive against them.
'Dr Shamsher Ali Khan and his brother were killed in the suicide attack
‘Dr Shamsher Ali Khan and his brother were killed in the suicide attack,’ Swat police chief Qazi Ghulam Farooq told AFP.
Senior local police official Ali Khan told AFP that the politician had been sitting on the lawn in front of his house receiving guests and local constituents when a man in his early 20s rushed up to him.
‘His brother also rushed to save the lawmaker but the bomber blew himself up before he could be prevented,’ the police official said.
Spin Zada, a doctor at a local government hospital, confirmed that two bodies including that of Khan, 59, were brought to the hospital.
Eleven others were wounded in the blast in Kanju town, about 30 kilometres northwest of Swat’s main hub Mingora, he said.
Officials in the ANP said that Khan – a lawyer by profession – had received death threats from the Taliban ahead of the military offensive.
Popularity: 1% [?]
