PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber killed at least eight people, including a provincial law minister, after breaking into his home in northwest Pakistan yesterday, officials said.
Israr Ullah Gandapur, (pictured) law minister for the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was meeting constituents in his home village of Kulachi when the bomber struck, provincial health minister Shaukat Yousafzai said.
More than 25 people were also wounded in the attack, which occurred on the first day of the Islamic festival of Eid Al Adha, he added.
Mohammad Yousaf Khan, a police official in area said: “I am on the site and I have seen his dead body.”
Yousafzai, the health minister, said the suicide bomber had managed to break into the area despite “very tight security”.
The attack was later claimed by little-known militant group Ansarul Mujahideen.
“It was revenge for the martyrdom of some of our mujahideen,” Abu Baseer, a spokesman for the group said, referring to the killing of militants during a daring jailbreak in July.
Taliban militants armed with guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and bombs bombarded the prison in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, before escaping with some 250 inmates after a three-hour shootout that left 13 dead.
Wednesday’s attack involved 8-10 kilograms of locally made explosive, Inayat Ullah, a bomb disposal expert, said. “We have recovered two legs of the bomber,” he added.
Gandapur won his seat as an independent from the village of Kulachi, near the city of Dera Ismail Khan, which borders the country’s lawless tribal regions where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have carved out strongholds.
AFP
