13 dead in new attack on Pakistan Islamic party: police

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A suicide bomb blast targeting an Islamic party chief killed at least 13 people in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, officials said the second attack against him and his supporters in two days.

The bombing took place in the town of Charsadda, close to the convoy of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party.

"At least 13 people were martyred including four police officials and 42 others were wounded in the suicide bombing," senior administration official Ajmal Khan told the media.

"The bomber was on foot and he jumped on the main road in front of the police vehicle and detonated his explosive when the convoy of Maulana Fazalur Rehman was coming," Khan said.

Rehman and his companions were unharmed, senior police official Nisar Khan Marwat told the media, adding that the politician had gone to the town to address a party meeting.

Rehman's party spokesman Asif Iqbal Daudzai confirmed that the party chief and other leaders were not hurt, but two security guards travelling in the vehicle in front were wounded.

"Maulana Fazlur Rehman and others are safe, their vehicle was damaged in the bomb blast," Daudzai told the media.

A media reporter at the site of the blast said the bombing left seven shops and three vehicles wrecked, with walls scarred by blood spots and pellet marks.

Fruit from nearby stalls was littered on the ground, scattered among quantities of broken glass.

It was the second attack on Rehman and his supporters in as many days.

On Wednesday a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up near a police checkpoint, killing 10 people and wounding more than 20 in the northwestern town of Swabi, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of Charsadda.

Rehman was on his way to a public meeting in Swabi when that blast happened.

It was not immediately clear why Rehman, a federal MP and chairman of Pakistan's parliamentary committee on Kashmir, was being targeted.

Senior provincial minister Bashir Bilour told reporters that he could not comment on who could be behind the blast, but said that Taliban militants were trying to destabilise government by attacking politicians.

"Taliban want to destabilise the government and they do not want the politicians to meet the people," Bilour said.

Rehman's party walked out of the national ruling coalition on December 14 after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked one of its three cabinet ministers over a war of words with religious affairs minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi, who was also fired.

The spat related to a corruption scandal over accommodation for tens of thousands of Pakistani pilgrims that reportedly implicated Kazmi's ministry.

Rehman has demanded Gilani's resignation, and has also led rallies that forced the government to abandon possible changes in the country's blasphemy law.