|
A SUICIDE bomber attempted to kill Pakistan's interior minister in an attack at a political gathering in a northwestern town that left at least 22 dead and 35 wounded, officials said.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao sustained minor injuries, police said yesterday. Footage broadcast on state television showed the minister walking to his car after the blast, with bloodstains on his face and white shalwar kameez tunic, The Associated Press reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion will fall on Islamic militants who have repeatedly targeted top Pakistani officials, including President General Pervez Musharraf, for support of the US-led war on terror.
The suicide bomber struck soon after Sherpao had finished addressing a public gathering of his faction of the pro-government Pakistan People's Party, attended by hundreds of people in an open field in the northwestern town of Charsadda.
Local newspaper journalist Faiz Mohammed who was covering the event said the attacker got within 15 meters of the minister _ detonating the bomb among a crowd that had gathered around the minister as he was about to get into his car to leave.
|
