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A suicide bomber has killed at least eight people at a political rally in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say.<\/p>\nA suicide bomber has killed at least eight people at a political rally in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say.<\/p>\n
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A senior provincial minister and anti-Taliban figure, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, was among those killed.<\/p>\n
The blast happened at the house of a leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), which is part of the national governing coalition, local media said.<\/p>\n
The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the attack.<\/p>\n
The Taliban has repeatedly targeted members of the ANP, which holds power in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.<\/p>\n
Provincial information minister and ANP member, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, condemned the attack.<\/p>\n
“Terrorism has engulfed our whole society,” he said. “They are targeting our bases, our mosques, our bazaars, public meetings and our security checkpoints.”<\/p>\n
‘Smoke and dust’ <\/strong> Mr Bilour had delivered the keynote speech and was leaving when the attack occurred, Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader, told Associated Press news agency.<\/p>\n “There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground,” he said.<\/p>\n Mr Bilour, 69, was severely wounded in the chest and stomach and died from his injuries in hospital.<\/p>\n A senior police official told Agence France-Presse that Mr Bilour’s secretary and a policeman were among the dead, as well as other ANP officials.<\/p>\n At least 18 people were injured in the blast, hospital and police officials said.<\/p>\n Source: BBC News<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A suicide bomber has killed at least eight people at a political rally in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c59-islamic-world"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Some 100 people had gathered in Peshawar for the meeting of the ANP, which is part of the Pakistan People’s Party-led national coalition government.<\/p>\n