A suicide bomber killed seven Pakistanis in a strike that targeted a political rally in a northern district of the country that has been largely free from Taliban attacks.
The bomber detonated at a police checkpoint outside a bazaar in the northern district of Battagram earlier today. The suicide bomber is thought to have been targeting Amir Muqam, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and a minister without portfolio in the provincial government of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. Muqam was to address the rally.
No group has claimed credit for today’s attack. In the past, the Taliban have attacked members of the various political parties operating in the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, including the Awami National Party, which governs the province.
Battagram has been largely insulated from the worst of the violence that is present in most of the province. The last major attack in the area took place in the neighboring district of Mansehra on March 10, 2010, when the Taliban stormed the office of World Vision International, a US Christian aid group operating in northwestern Pakistan. Six Pakistani employees were killed in the attack.
The Mansehra Taliban are said to be led by Moman Khan, who previously claimed to have been commander of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi but has since said he no longer works with the group. Khan is said to have been behind recent threats and attacks against nongovernmental organizations in neighboring Abbottabad. The Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is an anti-Shia terror group that has been co-opted by al Qaeda and has conducted numerous attacks inside Pakistan.
Today’s attack is the first suicide strike by the Taliban in two weeks. The last Taliban suicide attack took place on June 26 at a police station in the town of Kolachi in the district of Dera Ismail Khan in northwestern Pakistan. A husband and wife, both wearing burkas, entered the town’s police station under the guise of filing a complaint and took several policemen hostage. As police laid siege to the station, the pair detonated their vests, killing seven policemen and a tea boy.
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed the attack, and said it was carried out to avenge the death of al Qaeda founder and former leader Osama bin Laden.
