Former senator and Awami National Party (ANP) leader Dawood Achakzai was injured in an incident of firing in Balochistan's Killa Abdullah district early on Monday.

Assailants opened fire on Achakzai as he was sleeping at his guest house in Killi Pir Alizai, Levies sources said.

Central ANP leader Zamarak Khan Achakzai said that timely retaliation from their own security personnel caused the assailants to flee.

Dawood Achakzai was taken to Civil Hospital Quetta for medical treatment and an emergency was imposed in the hospital. He is out of danger, doctors said.

Local tribesmen and Levies personnel reached the site of the attack as an investigation into the incident went under way.

Today's gun attack is the latest in a series of assaults on political parties in various parts of the country. Last week, an ANP leader in Peshawar, Haroon Bilour, was killed in a suicide attack claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Haroon's uncle Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, however, contested the Taliban claim in a Dawn report today, alleging that the attack was an 'inside job'.

Security officials are yet to disclose the motive behind today's attack.

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