ANP leader Basheer Balor killed among nine in suicide attack

Peshawar: ANP leader and senior minister Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Basheer Ahmad Balor has killed among nine in suicide attack in an ANP rally in Qissa Khwani Bazar of Peshawar.Basheer Balor was the second most senior member of the provincial Cabinet, whereas his brother Ghulam Ahmed Balor is the federal railways minister.Local SHO Abdul Sattar Khan was also killed in the blast.The explosion was so powerful that the windowpanes of the nearby buildings were broken.

According to reports,an ANP public meeting was continue when a suicide bomber blew himself. ANP leader Basheer Balor and his personal secretary Noor Muhammad alias Babu had received serious injuries ,they were taken to the hospital where they took their last breath and succumbed to the injuries.

Police and rescue teams rushed to the site and immediately injured and the dead bodies to Lady Reading Hospital.Over 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan. According to hospital sources 18 injured were brought to Lady Redding Hospital.

Balor was leaving the rally after delivering the keynote speech when the attack occurred, said Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader.”There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground,” he said.

According to the local media, Taliban has accepted responsibility for the attack .The militant group has formed a special wing to attack members of the ANP and the MQM, another political party that has opposed the Taliban.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the KPK information minister and a member of the Awami National Party, said both he and Balor had repeatedly received threats from militants. He condemned the attack and said the government needed to intensify its battle against the Taliban.