‘Bomb kills 5, wounds Pakistan vote candidate’

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A bomb killed at least five people and wounded a Pakistani election candidate yesterday as he campaigned in the restive northwest, raising the death toll in the nation’s bloody poll campaign to 97.

The latest attack in the town of Hangu, a flashpoint for violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, comes a day after the deadliest bombing so far on the election campaign.

“At least five people have been killed and several injured,” police official Tahir Khan told AFP, warning that the death toll could rise.

“It is too early to determine the nature of the bomb. It might be a suicide attack or a planted bomb,” Tahir Khan said.

“We are shifting the injured to hospital and it looks like the death toll will rise,” he told AFP.

Hangu police chief Mohammed Sajjad said the candidate, Syed Janan, was among 15 people who were injured.

The attack, which came as Janan campaigned in a Hangu market, raises to 97 the number of people killed in attacks on politicians and political parties since April 11, according to an AFP tally.

Janan, seeking re- election for the assembly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, is contesting Saturday’s election for the right-wing Jamiat Ulemae-Islam, a religious party in the outgoing government coalition. — AFP