At least 10 people were killed and 15 others injured, including women and children, in a high intensity car bombing and a gun attack in Peshawar on Saturday, as militants blew up an election office of an independent candidate in North Waziristan while police defused a bomb outside the compound of an election candidate in Swabi, further raising fears that violence will mar the national and regional elections on May 11.
At least 9 people, including women and children, were killed when explosives fixed to a passenger van headed to Sherakera from Peshawar detonated at Matani Bazaar on Saturday afternoon. No outfit has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.
COP KILLED
In another militant attack, a policeman and two terrorists were killed during an exchange of fire in the Regi Safaidsang area in the suburbs of Peshawar.
According to details, police officials stopped a vehicle for checking when the occupants hurled a grenade at them and opened fire. A policeman was killed and three injured while two of the four attackers were gunned down by security personnel in retaliatory gunfire. The police cordoned off the area and launched a search operation for the two attackers, reportedly injured in the skirmish.
MILITANTS BLOW UP ELECTION OFFICE IN MIRANSHAH
In North Waziristan’s main town Miranshah, militants blew up the election office of an independent candidate, adding to security fears ahead of historic national polls next month. No one was hurt in the bombing.
“Militants blew up the election office of Kamran Khan with explosives at around 5am,” an intelligence official in Miranshah told a foreign news agency, adding that all three rooms of the office were destroyed.
Residents in Miranshah confirmed the bombing, saying an adjacent mosque was also damaged in the blast. Khan is a former legislator from North Waziristan who supported the outgoing government led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the official said.
BOMB DEFUSED IN SWABI
In Swabi, the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) defused a bomb outside the compound of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s election candidate Fazl Ali Haqqani.
According to police, unidentified terrorists had planted an improvised explosive device outside the compound. A passerby informed police about the suspected object. The BDS personnel reached the scene and defused the bomb.
An official of the BDS said that around five kilogrammes of explosives were concealed in the presser cooker that could have caused large-scale destruction if detonated.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks on Saturday but the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has made death threats against the three main secular parties that made up the outgoing government and who backed army operations against the militants.
On Thursday, militants shot dead a candidate of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Hyderabad, the first to die in the election campaign, in an attack claimed by the Taliban. More than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
