A provincial minister and senior politician belonging to the Awami National Party was killed in Peshawar on Saturday when a bomb exploded at a political rally.
Minister Bashir Bilour was killed with eight others when a bomb exploded at a political rally in the Qissa Khwani Bazaar in
Peshawar. At least 18 people were injured in the blast. The rally was being held ahead of elections in the country which are expected to take place in early 2013.
The Awami National Party traces its roots to the National Awami Party founded by Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. The secular party is being challenged in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province by the religious parties and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Information minister Iftikhar Hussain said that he believed that the attack was carried out by the TTP which had issued threats against the minister in the past. This was the third time Bilour was targeted by militants, Iftikhar said.