18 dead in Hangu, Dir attacks on poll rallies

ISLAMABAD (PAN on Tuesday, officials said.

The first explosion occurred in a busy market of Doaba area in Hangu, where a corner meeting of the right-wing Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) was about to take place, police said. A candidate of the party, Mufti Syed Janan, and 11 children were among the injured.

A curfew was imposed in the volatile district in the wake of the attack, the second on a JUI-F leader in as many days. Mufti Janan told local media outlets he and two of his bodyguards had also been injured in the bombing.

A day earlier, 23 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in a similar blast that hit a public meeting of JUI-F poll contender Munir Orakzai in the Sewak area of Kurram Agency. The explosive device had been planted inside a seminary where the rally was taking place.

Hangu police chief, Mohammad Sajjad, said the bomb had been attached to a motorcycle. Rescue and emergency team had been dispatched to the site and the victims were shifted to nearby hospitals.

Elsewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a bomb attack on a rally of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) killed six people and injured several others.

The improvised explosive device had been placed near the vehicle of Zahir Khan — a brother of Zamin Khan, the PPP candidate from PK-96 constituency of Lower Dir –III. Khan succumbed to the injuries he suffered in the attack.

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