MIRANSHAH: Militants blew up the election office of an independent candidate in northwest Pakistan yesterday, adding to security fears ahead of historic national polls next month.
No one was hurt in the bombing in Miranshah, which is the main town in North Waziristan and a known hub of Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants, bordering Afghanistan.
But the bombing is likely to fuel concerns that 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.
“Militants blew up the election office of Kamran Khan with explosive at around 5.00am,” an intelligence official in Miranshah said, adding that all three rooms of the office were destroyed.
Residents in Miranshah confirmed the bombing and said that 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, the official said.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
But umbrella Taliban faction Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has made death threats against the three main secular parties that made up the outgoing government and who backed army operations against the Islamist militants.
On Thursday, militants shot dead a candidate for outgoing coalition partner the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the first to die in the election campaign, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
Pakistan says 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.
Election candidates allowed to keep five civilian armed bodyguards
After the attacks contenders would now be allowed to keep five civilian bodyguards with licensed arms during the polls campaign, official sources said here yesterday.
Also, the police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which is more prone to militant attacks has done categorisation of polling stations in all the districts where deployment would be made as per the sensitive situation in the area, the source disclosed.
After bomb attack in Bannu on an a provincial assembly candidate Adnan Wazir last month, the life attempt on seasoned nationalist leader Arbab Ayub Jan on Thursday showed that the political leaders and candidates are under threat during electioneering.
Arbab Ayub Jan, the ANP candidate from NA-4 Peshawar, escaped a bomb attack on his car near his house when he was returning along with his son Arbab Usman, who is a candidate for PK-9, from a public meeting in Tarnab Farm Thursday night.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police has forwarded its suggestions and demands to the government for ensuring peaceful elections in the province, the source said. It added that the KP Police have suggested deployment of Quick Response Force to ensure peaceful polls.
“Under instructions from the Election Commission of Pakistan, politicians can keep five civilians with licensed arms as guards. They need to be verified from the police first,” the Additional Inspector General Police, Operations, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Masood Khan Afridi, said.
He said the situation would improve if the platoons of the Frontier Constabulary deployed in other parts of the country are returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Arbab Ayub Jan and the senior ANP leader and candidate from NA-1 Peshawar Ghulam Ahmad Bilour on Thursday asked for adequate security to the candidates and politicians. Arbab Ayub Jan feared any untoward incident in future can even affect the election process.
Though the ANP leadership is claiming it isn’t scared of such attacks and would continue its mission of restoration of peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, the two attacks have triggered concerns among the voters in general and the workers of the political parties, especially ANP, in particular.
Most candidates of different political parties, busy in election campaign in rural Peshawar and southern districts of KP, haven’t been provided adequate security by the government. Some of these contenders have arranged one or two gunmen on their own but the measures taken by them are not enough to counter a bomb attack.
Agencies
