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PAKISTAN-ELECTION-UNREST-NORTHWEST
Poll candidate injured in suicide blast in NW Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A suicide bomber injured a
candidate from the party of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and killed
his driver in an attack in northwest Pakistan Sunday, police said, three days
before the country’s general election.
Five others were also injured in the blast in the city of Dera Ismail Khan
and have been rushed to hospital, local police official Kamal Shah said.
“A suicide bomber blew himself up near the vehicle of Ikramullah Gandapur
as he left his house for election campaign,” district police chief Zaheer
Afridi told AFP.
“Gandapur was injured along with five others while his driver died on the
spot,” he added.
Video footage showed the driver on the seat of Gandapur’s black Land
Cruiser as his armed guards rushed to save the injured.
The attack followed a suicide blast in the southwestern province of
Balochistan on July 13 which killed 149 people, underscoring continuing
security challenges in Pakistan following years of dramatic improvements.
Violence in Pakistan has dropped significantly since the country’s
deadliest-ever militant attack, an assault on a school in the northwestern
city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 150 people, most of them
children.
Pakistan’s military intensified operations against militants in the tribal
areas along the border with Afghanistan in the wake of that attack, leading
to improved security.
But analysts have long warned that Pakistan is not tackling the root
causes of extremism, and that militants retain the ability to carry out
spectacular attacks.
Khan is hoping to achieve a years-long dream of becoming prime minister,
with recent polls showing his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party climbing
nationally ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1615 hrs