A Pakistani election candidate was killed in a suicide blast in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, the Dawn reported, quoting the police. Ikramullah Gandapur was the candidate for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the PK-99 constituency of the province for the July 25 elections.
Gandapur succumbed to his injuries at Combined Military Hospital. His driver Ramzan was also killed in the attack. Four others, including Gandapur’s guard, were injured.
The attack took place in the Kulachi area of the Dera Ismail Khan district. The police said Gandapur’s jeep was targeted near his residence when he was headed to an election meeting, reported Geo News. The police said the severed limbs of the suicide bomber have been recovered from the blast site and an investigation is under way.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has condemned the attack.
Gandapur was the former agriculture minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was elected to the post after his brother, Israrullah Gandapur, was killed in a suicide attack in October 2013 in his hometown of Kulachi.
The attack follows a spate of bombings at political rallies in Pakistan before the election. The biggest of them was on July 13, when over 128 people were killed in Balochistan. Balochistan Awami party candidate Siraj Raisani was among those who died in the blast.
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