LAHORE, March 20: Attackers threw grenades and opened fire on a leader of the PPP here on Wednesday, killing his guard and driver and wounding five people, including himself, in Baghbanpura on Wednesday.

PPP leader Mian Akhlaq Guddu was on his way to a nearby market with his friend Shahzad, guard Fazlur Rehman and driver Omar Khan when three unidentified young men intercepted their car and hurled three hand-grenades at them. One of the grenades smashed through the windscreen of their car, but it did not explode. One of the two grenades burst outside the car, leaving all the car occupants and three passersby wounded. The attackers then opened fire at the car and ran away.

The bomb disposal squad defused the two grenades.

The wounded were taken to the Services Hospital where the car driver and one passerby Allah Rakha, a rickshaw driver, died.

The condition of the PPP leader and his guard was stated to be critical. The guard with bullet injuries in the head was later shifted to the Lahore General Hospital.

Talking to Dawn, Mian Asif Meraj, Guddu’s elder brother, termed the incident a terrorist act. “It is terrorism and nothing else,” he said, ruling out the old rivalries his family had with different groups in the past.

“Shaikh Rohail Asghar is our brother and all personal disputes with him have been settled down,” Mr Meraj said, admitting there were still political differences with Mr Asghar as Guddu had contested election for Town Nazim against him. All other issues concerning the PPP or local election in Lahore had been resolved, he reiterated.

SP Dr Usman of the Cantonment division ruled out the possibility of the terrorist act, saying Guddu had enmity with many people that could be a motive behind the attack.

BENAZIR’S REACTION: PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto condemned the attack and said it was further proof that the government of President Pervez Musharraf was not in control of security, Reuters adds.