Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, the chief of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and former federal interior minister of the country, survived the fourth suicide attack on his life last week.

The attackers, however, have failed to restrict him to his house. He still loves to be among his people. Just a few hours after he survived a suicide attack in Umerzai, Charsadda on April 30, Sherpao turned up at the funeral prayers of constable Ashraf, who embraced martyrdom while protecting the chief of QWP. Sherpao again visited the house of the cop on the third day of his death to condole with the family.

"The attackers opened shots at the car of Aftab Sherpao. However, the car was armoured. As the Quick Response Force and other cops retaliated the fire, a constable Ashraf ran after the attacker to arrest him when the suicide jacket around the vest of the attacker went off, killing the brave cop," says Mohammad Saeed Wazir, the deputy inspector general (DIG) of the Mardan Range while talking to TNS.

Sherpao, a former minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and twice elected chief minister of the erstwhile North West Frontier Province, is one political leader of the country who has survived the most number of suicide attacks on his life. His son Sikander Hayat Sherpao was accompanying him in almost all these attacks and once sustained injuries too. Sikander separately survived a suicide attack in Shabqadar, the fifth attack on the family.

"Like that in the tribal areas, they (militants) want to eliminate the Pakhtun leadership in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, we are to continue our struggle for the rights of Pakhtuns and for the restoration of peace in the region," said Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao after the attack on him.

Sherpao was once the senior most leader of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP). He quit the party after developing differences with the chairperson Benazir Bhutto. After quitting, he formed his own faction of the PPP (PPP-Sherpao) which was later renamed as QWP. The QWP won a good number of seats in the last general elections in May 2013 and formed a coalition government with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Sikander Sherpao was one of the two senior ministers in the KP government before he quit the office and the coalition to protest sacking of two of the party ministers.

Why is Sherpao a target for several years now? The spokesman for the QWP Tariq Khan believes he is being targeted for speaking for the rights of Pakhtuns. "Aftab Sherpao wants Pakhtuns to be united against terrorism. He wants peace should return to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and strict action taken against those involved in it," says Khan. He adds that Sherpao and his party want Pakistan and Afghan governments to be on the same page against terrorism.

"During a meeting at Watan Kor (the headquarters of QWP), Sherpao once told the chief minister KP, Sirajul Haq and other leaders that the situation could not be improved until an operation is carried out against the miscreants in Peshawar and its surrounding areas, including Charsaddda, Mardan and Nowshera districts. We believe that operations against the National Action Plan must be expedited and the apex committees must play a more important role against terrorism," says Khan.

One of the reasons of Sherpao becoming a constant target is that he led the operations against militants as interior minister when General Pervez Musharraf was ruling the country; he has remained a prime target for suicide bombers and other attackers since 2007. He survived the first suicide attack on his life in April 2007 after he attended a rally in Station Koroona in Charsadda. Sherpao and one of his sons were among those wounded while 31 people lost lives in the attack.

Another suicide bomber targeted the former chief minister in the Markazi Jamia Masjid in his hometown Sherpao in December 2007 when people were offering Eid prayers. Over 55 people, mostly from one street, were killed in the second suicide attack on him. He survived the third suicide attack in March 2012. A policeman and a young girl were killed and a few others wounded when the bomber targeted the motorcade of Sherpao near Kangra village in Charsadda. One of his party MPAs, Mohammad Ali Khan Mohmand, was among those wounded in the attack. Mohmand later succumbed to his injuries after fighting for life for few days.

"After attending a public meeting in Shabqadar, my father Mohammad Ali Mohmand, Aftab Sherpao and Sikandar Sherpao were on way to Peshawar in the same car when they were targeted by a suicide bomber. In this blast, my father suffered severe head and chest injuries. Tragically, he never fully recovered and was afflicted with illness for eight months. He embraced shahadat (martyrdom) on November 2, 2012," says Taimur Khan Mohmand Advocate, son of Mohammad Ali.

"My father and Sherpao’s work towards public service could be judged from the fact that despite being on the militant hit-list, they could not be separated from the people. This was the reason that the QWP gained a stronghold in Charsadda, to the extent that it won four provincial seats out of six in the current elections," says Mohmand.

Police had also foiled a suicide attack on the rally of Sherpao’s son Sikander Sherpao in Charsadda by shooting the bomber. Besides, there were at least two other explosive attacks on the house and office of the former interior minister. Apart from one hand grenade attack in Hayatabad, all these attacks happened in Charsadda district, the stronghold of QWP where it has given a tough time to the rival nationalist party, Awami National Party.

It was Sherpao’s style of politics that, while ANP’s chief Asfandyar Wali lost the last general elections from his hometown, he not only managed to win his own seat but also provincial seats for his son and other candidates.

"One of the factors for his party winning a good number of seats is the way Sherpao continued visiting the people of his area unlike the ANP chief who after the suicide attack on him left Charsadda for years. Sherpao even attended the funeral prayers of the slain cop a few hours after he survived the suicide attack on April 30 and again visited his house on the third day," said Abidur Rahman, a social worker from Charsadda.

Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao is not the only Pakhtun leader who survived suicide attacks. Senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Amir Muqam has survived the second most number of attacks on his life over the last few years. Besides, the ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, ANP leaders Afrasiab Khattak, Ameer Haider Hoti, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, amir of the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rahman, former amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmad and a number of others have survived many attacks on their lives in the last few years. Senior leader of ANP Bashir Ahmad Bilour also survived a few attacks but fell victim to a suicide bombing near Qissa Khwani a couple of years back.