MARDAN: KP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti escaped unhurt in a suicide attack in his hometown here on Friday, eyewitness and police sources said.
Sources said the bomber fell on the ground close to the College Chowk as he tried to attack the chief minister’s cavalcade and then blew up. There were also reports that he first threw a hand-grenade at the vehicles forming part of the motorcade and later ran towards it and exploded. The fast-moving vehicles weren’t hit and the chief minister and those accompanying him drove away safe and sound.
Police had blocked Mardan-Nowshera Road as part of security measures for the chief minister’s motorcade. However, the suicide bomber managed to reach near the main gate of Abdul Wali Khan University and waited there for the chief minister to arrive. Eyewitnesses said it seemed the bomber became nervous and was unable to hit the target.
The chief minister was on one of his frequent pre-election visits to Mardan and was driving to Pirano Daag locality in the city to address a public meeting. He was elected MPA from an urban-cum-rural constituency in Mardan in 2008 general elections and is reportedly planning to contest from there again.
The site of the blast was strewn with the limbs of the suicide bomber. The explosion also created a crater. The bloodstains were visible on the boundary wall of Abdul Wali Khan University. Nobody else was injured in the blast. Police sources said the bomber was 16 to 17 years of age.
People were later found commenting that the security arrangements for the chief minister’s convoy and the public meeting were inadequate. They said the young man was waiting near the College Chowk for quite some time, but no one suspected him to be a suicide bomber.
Mardan is the gateway to militancy-hit Swat and rest of Malakand division and Mohmand and Bajaur tribal agencies. The militants have accelerated their activities in Mardan district for the last few weeks.
On Tuesday, a blast was conducted in the classroom at the Physics Department of the Government Postgraduate College Mardan, which is adjacent to Abdul Wali Khan University. Suspected militants had planted the explosives, but no casualty was caused as the students had left the college.
There have been suicide attacks, bombings and rocket attacks in Mardan city in the past as well and a number of educational institutions have been blown up by the militants.
Public meetings of the ruling ANP attended by Chief Minister Ameeer Haider Hoti were attacked in Nowshera and Charsadda last year, but this was the first time that he was the direct target of a suicide bombing.The ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan is the maternal uncle of Haider Hoti, who is the son of former federal communication minister Muhammad Azam Hoti. Haider Hoti has been visiting Mardan and addressing gathering for the last few weeks.Despite the attempted attack on his life, the chief minister addressed the public meeting in Mardan.
