Sherpao survives yet another suicide attack

PESHAWAR - A suicide bomber targeted the convoy of Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao (PPP-S) Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao in Shabqadar area on Saturday, and killed two persons – a small girl and a policeman – and injured seven others, including two lawmakers of the provincial assembly.
Sources said the blast took place shortly after the PPP-S chief concluded a public meeting, and party leaders were returning from the rally venue near Kangra Public School, Shabqadar.
The bomber targeted a police van escorting the former interior minister’s convoy. His son, Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, a member of provincial assembly (MPA), and Mohammad Ali, also an MPA, sustained minor injuries, while the PPP-S chief remained safe.
Soon after the attack, a large number of people and rescue workers rushed to the site and shifted the injured people to Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. Contingents of police also reached the blast site and cordoned off the area. Sherpao also visited the blast site and examined the situation.
The dead include Constable Bashir and a minor daughter of PPP-S leader Syed Ahmad Shah, while those who were injured are: MPA Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, MPA Mohammad Ali, Inspector
Jamshed Khan, Constable Dawood Khan, Constable Anwar Ali and Constable Waqas.
Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour, PPP leaders Zahir Shah and Arbab Alamgir, and high-ranking police officers visited Lady Reading Hospital to enquire about the health of the injured persons. District police chief Nisar Khan confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack and its target was the former interior minister.
The latest attack suggests that Sherpao remains on the hit-list of militants, as he was the interior minister when the military operation against Lal Masjid was launched in the heart of Islamabad. Soon after the operation, the number of suicide attacks multiplied in Pakistan, and in April 2007 a suicide bomber attacked a rally of PPP-S, killing 28 people and injuring dozens of others.
Militants later targeted him while he was offering Eid prayers at a mosque in his hometown of Charsadda. The attack killed 50 persons and injured dozens of worshippers, but Sherpao survived. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman for Mohmand Agency claimed responsibility for the attack, and announced that the attacks
would continue.