PESHAWAR: In the first incident of terrorism targeting the ongoing election campaign, 13 people, including Awami National Party (ANP) senior leader and provincial assembly candidate for PK-78 Haroon Bilour, were killed and 34 others injured when a blast targeted a corner meeting of the party at around midnight, police said.

The police said the blast took place in the Yakatut area of the city, where Mr Bilour was attending the corner meeting. However, the officials had not immediately ascertained the nature of blast.

Lady Reading Hospital Director Khalid Masud confirmed to Dawn that 12 bodies and 35 wounded were brought after the explosion. An injured person died later.

LRH spokesperson Zulfiqar Babakhel said that Mr Haroon’s body was at the hospital along with other bodies. However, he rejected the initial reports that Daniyal Bilour, a teenage son of Haroon, was among the deceased.

ANP candidate Haroon Bilour, whose father Bashir Bilour was killed in a 2012 suicide bombing, dies in Peshawar blast

Mr Haroon was ANP’s provincial information secretary and son of ANP stalwart Bashir Ahmed Bilour, who was killed in a suicide attack in December 2012.

Earlier a terror alert was issued by National Counter Terrorism Authority warning of attacks on politicians, most of them belonging to KP including ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan.

Haroon’s uncle, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, had survived a suicide attack.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2018