Gunmen ‘kill’ two Pakistan poll campaigners in NW tribal region
Musharraf says ready to face jail
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, April 15, (AFP): Gunmen killed two election campaigners in Pakistan’s lawless northwestern tribal region on Monday, police said, the latest in a series of attacks ahead of historic polls next month.
The attackers ambushed a car carrying workers of independent candidate Abdul Rahim Burki in Dera Ismail Khan district, close to the lawless tribal area, police chief Khalid Sohail said.
Taleban militants have vowed to target secular parties running in the May 11 general elections and attacks in the northwest over the weekend left one person dead and four wounded.
“The assailants opened fire on the car, its driver lost control and the vehicle hit a roadside tree,” Sohail told AFP.
“Two workers were killed and three wounded,” he said, adding that the gunmen fled on a motorbike.
Another police official confirmed the attack and the fatalities and said the injured workers were out of danger.
There are fears that militant violence will mar the national and regional elections on May 11, which will mark the country’s first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has served a full term in office.
Burki is contesting a seat in South Waziristan tribal district, which is under military control. Most of the population fled after a military operation expelled Taleban and al-Qaeda linked militants.
He told AFP that more than 80 percent of his voters were living in Dera Ismail Khan and nearby Tank districts, though their votes will count in the South Waziristan constituency. Burki said the car was clearly identified as connected to his campaign but he had no idea who the attackers were.
“This is my first election. I have no party affiliation and I received no threats from any group so far,” he told AFP.
“It appears they had been waiting to target the vehicle.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the umbrella Taleban faction Tehreek-eTaleban Pakistan said it was behind two attacks on Sunday and the killing of a candidate for outgoing coalition partner the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the first to die in the election campaign, on Thursday.
Meanwhile, former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf, facing a barrage of legal cases over his time in power, said Monday he had done nothing wrong but was ready to go to jail if the courts ordered it.
The retired general, who returned to Pakistan last month to run for parliament in the May 11 general election, is accused over the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a rebel from the region of Baluchistan.
Lawyers are also trying to have him put on trial for treason for subverting the constitution by imposing a state of emergency and sacking judges in 2007. A hearing in this case on Monday was adjourned to Wednesday.
At the launch of his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) party’s manifesto held amid tight security at his farmhouse near Islamabad, Musharraf said his conscience was clear.
“I have a conviction in my heart that I have not done anything wrong,” he said.
“The only thing in my heart was to save Pakistan and now I am here I have the same commitment, that I will save Pakistan.”
Asked what he would do if he lost the cases and was sentenced to prison, Musharraf told reporters: “If that is the decision, I am ready to go.”
The 69-year-old, who has had death threats from the Taleban, is standing for parliament in a seat in the remote northern district of Chitral, close to the Afghan border.