(5)Suicide bombing kills 3 in Peshawar
A Taliban suicide bomber has struck again in Pakistan's insurgency-wracked northwest. The latest attack occurred outside of a stadium in Peshawar, the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province.
Three people were killed and several others were wounded after a suicide bomber detonated his vest at the main gate of the stadium, Geo TV reported.
The targets of the attack appear to have been Bashir Ahmed Bilour, the provincial Chief Minister, and Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani. Bilour "narrowly escaped the suicide attack," sources told the news agency. Ghani left the stadium just 10 minutes prior to the attack.
Both Bilour and Ghani are members of the Awami National Party, the ethnic Pashtun political party that controls the government Northwest Frontier Province after the February 2008 election. The party is opposed to military action against the Taliban and advocates a peaceful end to the fighting in Pakistan's northwest. The party has backed peace agreements with the Taliban in the past.
The Awami National Party has been the target of multiple Taliban attacks over the past year. The Taliban conducted two major strikes against ANP offices in North Waziristan and Kurram the week before the election, killing and wounding scores of its members. In the beginning of October, Taliban spokesman Mullah Omar said senior leaders in the Awami National Party, including Bilour and Ghani, are on the list of public figures targeted for assassination.
On Oct. 2, the Taliban came close to assassinating Asfandyar Wali Khan, the president of the Awami National Party. A suicide bomber detonated his vest in a guesthouse next to Khan's home during the Eid-ul-Fitr celebration.
Today's attack is the latest in the Taliban's terror and military campaign that has gripped Pakistan. Suicide bombers have struck in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Wah, Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, and Bannu over the past year. More than 2,000 Pakistanis have been reported to have been killed in suicide attacks alone this year.
