Taliban Claim Responsibility for a Bomb Attack That Killed a Pakistani Politician
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Pakistani Taliban claimed
responsibility on Saturday for a suicide bomb attack that killed a senior
politician in northwest Pakistan who was one of the group’s most vocal critics.
At least eight other people were killed in the attack and more than 15 others
were wounded, senior government officials and doctors at a local hospital said.
The politician, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, was a senior
minister in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, where the Taliban have
a strong presence. Mr. Bilour was long on the target list of the
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella organization of the Pakistani militant
groups, for publicly denouncing them and challenging their violent policies.
Mr. Bilour was coming out of a meeting of his Pashtun
nationalist Awami National Party in the provincial capital of Peshawar, when the
suicide bomber blew himself up, said the secretary of home and tribal affairs,
Azam Khan.
Mr. Bilour had been taken to the hospital in critical
condition, said Dr. Arshad Javed, chief executive of the city’s Lady Reading
Hospital.
Among those killed were Mr. Bilour’s secretary and a
police officer, Mr. Khan said.
The provincial information minister, Mian Iftikhar
Hussain, called for immediate action against militants in the nearby tribal
region of North Waziristan, the safest haven for militants in Pakistan, saying
it was time to take action against all militants. “Let there be no difference
between good Taliban and bad Taliban,” he said.
A security analyst, Asad Munir, a retired brigadier,
said the attack would further complicate campaigning in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Province for a national election expected next year. He said that secular,
liberal and nationalist parties would have a difficult time because they are on
the Taliban hit list, and that, “Religious parties will take advantage of the
situation.”
Also on Saturday, police officials in the southern
province of Sindh said that a mob had tortured and killed a man accused of
burning the
Koran, the latest in a series of violent episodes in Pakistan
stemming from allegations of blasphemy.
The killing occurred Friday in Seeta, a remote village
in the Dadu district in southern Sindh Province. The village’s head cleric,
Usman Memon, said charred remnants of the Koran had been found in the mosque
that morning, and that the victim had been staying at the mosque alone. It is
common for impoverished travelers and religious proselytizers to stay at mosques
while traveling.
The man, whose name was not known, was handed over to
the police and accused of violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, Mr. Memon said.
But as news of the episode spread later on Friday, an
angry crowd gathered outside the police station and eventually forced its way
in. The man was dragged out, tortured and killed, and his body was set on fire,
according to the police.
Usman Ghani, the district’s senior police
superintendent, said that he had suspended the official in charge of the police
station and filed administrative charges against seven other officers for
negligence.
He said that charges had been filed against 1,000
people believed to have participated in the mob action and that 150 people had
been arrested.
Little was known about the victim or what motive he
was thought to have had for burning the Koran, if he did so. Cases of violence
arising from blasphemy accusations appear to be on the rise in Pakistan. Human
rights groups have said that most of those victimized are members of religious
minorities, particularly Christians, but Muslims are sometimes accused.
In a case similar to Friday’s, a mentally disabled man
was beaten and burned to death in Punjab Province in July, also after an angry
crowd broke into a police station.
Blasphemy is a capital crime in Pakistan, and it is a
highly delicate and emotional issue for the deeply conservative country. Calls
for repealing or revising the blasphemy laws have met with strong resistance
from religious leaders, who have organized large protests against efforts to
amend them. Two prominent advocates of changing the laws were assassinated last
year.
Ismail Khan reported from Peshawar, and Salman Masood from Islamabad,
Pakistan. Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting from Karachi, Pakistan.
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