ANP leader, 13 others injured in blast in Pakistan

Islamabad: Awami National Party leader Bashir Khan Umarzai and 13 others were injured on Saturday when his entourage was targeted with a roadside bomb in Pakistan`s restive northwest, police said.

Umarzai was travelling to a court complex when his motorcade was targeted with the bomb in Khan Gari area of Charsadda district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Umarzai, his son Shakeel Bashir Umarzai and a dozen others were injured in the attack, police officials said. The injured were taken to Lady Reading Hospital, where doctors said they were all out of danger. Police officials said the bomb was triggered by remote control. Policemen cordoned off the area and conducted a search but were unable to make any arrests. No group claimed responsibility for the bombing though such attacks are usually blamed on the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Scores of workers and leaders of the secular ANP have been killed by the Taliban over the past five years. Top ANP leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour was assassinated by a Taliban suicide bomber in Peshawar on December 22. PTI