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Zulfiqar Ali Baba Khel, the spokesperson of the Lady Ready
Hospital of Peshawar, confirmed that 13 persons died and 47 others sustained
injuries in the blast.
Chief of Peshawar police, Qazi Jamil, said that the provincial
information secretary of the Awami National Party (ANP) Haroon Bilour was
among the killed persons in the suicide attack.
A suicide bomber exploded his explosives-laden vest when Haroon
Bilour was meeting party workers at a public meeting in Yakatoot area of
Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,
the police officer said.
The bomber managed to reach near the slain politician when party
workers were celebrating his arrival with fireworks.
Police, security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and
shifted the bodies and injured to the Lady Reading Hospital.
The Bomb Disposal Squad of police said that around eight to ten
kilograms of explosives along with one kilogram of ball bearings was used in
the attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
Bashir Bilour, the father of Haroon Bilour and a senior
political leader of the ANP, was also killed in a suicide blast during an
election campaign in Peshawar in 2012.
Haroon Bilour was contesting for a provincial assembly seat
PK-78 in the country's July 25 general elections.
The ANP is a Pashtun nationalist party from Pakistan's Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province and had representation in the provincial assembly, and
also in the upper house and the lower house of the country's parliament.
Leaders of all major political parties condemned the attack and
urged authorities to ensure the security of the politicians contesting the
elections.
Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan said it is a conspiracy
to disrupt the process for the free and fair elections.
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Source: NDO