By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A candidate for the national assembly was killed on Wednesday in a shooting in the country’s restive northwest, the police said, adding to the violence that has plagued the campaign for the February 8 elections.
The candidate, Rehan Zeb Khan, was an independent who had the support of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of the former prime minister, Imran Khan.
He was campaigning in the Siddiqabad area of Bajaur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle, killing him and wounding four others, Rasheed Khan, a local police officer said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which the police said appeared to be a targeted killing.
The PTI condemned the killing and accused the caretaker government of failing to provide adequate security for its candidates and supporters. Hammad Azhar, a PTI leader, said that Zeb Khan was a loyal and dedicated worker of the party.
The Election Commission of Pakistan postponed the voting in the two constituencies where Zeb Khan was running, NA-8 and PK-22, after the incident.
The killing came a day after a bomb blast at a PTI rally in the southwestern province of Balochistan killed four people and wounded six others. Balochistan has long been a hotbed of separatist insurgency and militant violence.
In another attack on Wednesday, five people were injured when a grenade was thrown at an election office of the Pakistan Peoples Party in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.
The police said that unknown assailants on a motorcycle hurled the grenade at the office, which was in a busy market area. The grenade hit a car and exploded on the ground, injuring five people, including a PPP candidate, Maddad Jatak.
The attacks on Wednesday were the latest in a series of violent incidents that have marred the election campaign, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where candidates and rallies have been targeted by militants.
The surge in attacks has raised security concerns for more than 128 million voters and contestants.
The month of January has been deadly for election hopefuls, as Zeb Khan was not the first independent candidate to have lost his life in the run-up to the polls. Earlier this month, Shah Khalid was shot dead by unidentified men in Swabi district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Another independent candidate, Kaleemullah Khan, was gunned down in North Waziristan, a former stronghold of the Taliban.
Other parties have also faced attacks in different parts of the country. Previously, National Party’s Lala Abdul Rasheed, and Senator Kohda Akram Dashti, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s candidate for NA-258 Aslam Buledi and former member of the national assembly and National Democratic Movement leader Mohsin Dawar were attacked.
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