PESHAWAR: Former agriculture minister from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Arbab Ayub Jan escaped a remote-controlled bomb attack in Peshawar on Thursday night.
Police officials said the former provincial minister was returning back from an election rally when his car was targeted near Tarnab farms. His driver has been injured in the attack, they added.
The Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Liaqat Ali Khan told the media that the bomb was planted on a bicycle, which destroyed the car, he said and added the minister remained safe however his driver Nawaz has been injured.
Abdul Haq, a bomb disposal squad official, said that about two to three kilograms of explosive has been used to carry out the explosion.
“The blast only damaged the car because, there were no ball bearings used in the bomb,” he added.
The Awami National Party (ANP) leader Arban Tahir Khan confirmed to Dawn.Com that Arbab Ayub Jan is safe and had gone home.
He also urged the government to provide more protection to the ANP candidates who are under direct threat from the militants.
Earlier in the day, a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) electoral candidate was shot dead by Pakistani Taliban gunmen in a drive-by killing in the southern city of Hyderabad.
Speaking to Dawn.com via telephone from an undisclosed location, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan had claimed that the proscribed organisation was behind the killing of the MQM candidate, in continuation of the militant group’s earlier announcement of targeting of secular parties in Pakistan.
