Taliban suicide bomber strikes Peshawar rally, 20 people killed

ANP leader among the dead, Taliban says blast retaliation for killing of commander

ISLAMABAD:Awami National Party leader Haroon Bilour and 19 others were killed in a suicide bombing at an election rally in Peshawar, an attack claimed by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan on Wednesday.

The bomber detonated his explosive vest close to Bilour’s vehicle when the ANP leader arrived for the rally in Yakatoot area. Bilour, who was contesting elections to the assembly of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, sustained injuries and died later in Lady Reading Hospital.

More than 75 people were injured in the attack, which the Pakistani Taliban said was carried out in response to the killing of their leader and a senior commander. The Taliban said it was also “revenge for the ANP’s previous government” in KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

“According to our initial investigation, it was a suicide attack and Haroon Bilour was the target,” said additional inspector general of police Shafqat Malik.

Bilour’s father, Bashir Bilour, one of the top leaders of the ANP, was himself killed by a Taliban suicide bomber in Peshawar in December 2012 while campaigning for the last elections.

Soon after Tuesday’s attack, ANP supporters gathered outside the hospital and shouted slogans against the government for its failure to provide security to Bilour. The ANP, which ruled Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa from 2008 to 2013, has lost scores of workers and several senior leaders in a series of attacks by the Taliban.