A suicide bomber rammed a car loaded with explosives into the election office of the Pakistan People’s Party-backed independent candidate in Parachinar on Saturday, leaving 40 people dead and a hundred injured private TV channels reported. However, officials sources put the death toll at 37.
Dr Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, contesting the election from NA-37, was not present in his election office at the time of the bombing.
The administrative head of the Kurram Agency, Syed Zaheerul Islam, while confirming the incident and the death toll, advised the local population to exercise maximum restraint and not to react to the incident. He said the suicide attack was aimed at derailing the election process.
Some of those killed were identified as Syed Arif Hussain, Kabir Hussain, Kamal Hussain, Asif Ali, Siffat Ali, Ahmad Ali, Muhammad Ali, Shafait and Wasim. The blast was so powerful that it destroyed six other vehicles and eight nearby shops besides the election office.
Eyewitnesses said the suicide attacker with long beard was driving a car with posters of a rival candidate pasted on it. “Soon after the explosive-laden car stopped next to the crowded election office, it exploded with a big bang,” an eyewitness told The News.
The hospital sources said they had received 24 bodies. Thirteen others succumbed to their injuries at the ill-equipped District Headquarters Hospital, Parachinar.
The death toll is feared to rise as some of the injured are stated to be in critical condition at the hospital.
A gastroenterologist by profession, Dr Shah is the agency’s president of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) but is contesting the election as an independent candidate because the Political Parties Act has not been extended to the tribal areas as yet. There are 24 candidates in the run in NA-37, the highest number of contestants in the country.
Dr Shah told The News that he had heard the explosion as he was not far away from the site of the blast. He said 50 of the wounded, majority of whom had suffered burn injuries, were in precarious condition.
The candidate complained that there were no proper facilities for the burn patients at the local hospital. He requested the government to airlift the critically injured for better health facilities to other areas.
Independent observers were prompt to link the incident with military operation in Darra Adamkhel, which was launched after the militants commandeered four truckloads of military ammunition.
Militants, however, believe that the operation was conducted due to the interception by the local Taliban of vehicles owned by a rival sect and their detaining a number of people of the community.
The area remained under curfew from November 16 to January 10 after sectarian violence erupted in the tribal agency that is sharply divided along the sectarian lines.
APP adds: President Pervez Musharraf and Caretaker Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro strongly condemned the Parachinar blast and said that nothing could deter the government from holding the February 18 elections.
The two leaders termed the blast an attempt to sabotage the ongoing democratic process.
The president and the prime minister expressed their condolences on the loss of innocent lives in the blast and directed the authorities to provide the injured with the best medical care.
The president said, “Any effort to derail the democratic process or the holding of elections will be foiled.”
The law enforcing agencies have also been directed to tighten the security and ensure the safety of voters and candidates, he added.
The prime minister said the caretaker government was committed to holding the elections on schedule.
Meanwhile, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema strongly condemned the blast, which has claimed several precious lives.
While talking to a private channel, he said terrorists wanted to derail and disturb the ongoing process of the general elections.