Summary Bashir Ahmad Bilour dies in hospital after being injured in ANP rally blast in Peshawar.
PESHAWAR: ANP leader and senrior minister Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Bashir Ahmad Bilour could not surive the injuries after
a suicide bomber blew himself up in an ANP rally in Qissa Khwani Bazar of Peshawar.
Nine people were killed Saturday night when a powerful bomb exploded during the public meeting of ANP in Qissa Khwani Bazar.
SHO Sattar Khan was also killed in the blast.
ANP leader Bashir Belour has also been injured and his condition is stated to be critical. Bashir Belour’s personal secretary Noor Muhammad was among the seven people who lost their lives in the blast.
According to initial reports, the blast took place at Qissa Khwani Bazar during an ANP public meeting.
ANP leader Bashir Bilour has received serious injuries while his personal secretary Noor Muhammad alias Babu also sustained injuries and was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
Police and rescue teams reached the site of occurrence and shifted the dead bodies and injured people to Lady Redding Hospital.
The explosion was so powerful that the windowpanes of the nearby buildings were broken.
According to hospital sources 18 injured were brought to Lady Redding Hospital
Police sources says it was a suicide attack.
A suicide attack on political rally in Peshawar killed nine people including provincial minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour on Saturday.
The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban.
Among the dead was Bashir Bilour, the second most senior member of the provincial Cabinet, said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the politician s brother and federal railways minister.
Over 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan.
Bilour was leaving the rally after delivering the keynote speech when the attack occurred, said Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader.
"There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground," he said.
The suicide bomber was on foot, said another police officer, Imtiaz Khan.
Mohammed Afridi, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call with The Associated Press. He said the militant group has formed a special wing to attack members of the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Quami
Movement, another political party that has opposed the Taliban.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister and a member of the Awami National Party, said both he and Bilour had repeatedly received threats from militants.
He condemned the attack and said the government needed to intensify its battle against the Taliban.
