Pakistan Suicide Bombing Kills At Least 12

A suicide bombing has occurred during a speech by Pakistan’s interior minister.

A suicide attacker detonated a bomb as Pakistan’s interior minister finished speaking at a meeting in the country’s northwest on Saturday, killing at least 12 people and wounding the official.

Security guards blocked the attacker as he tried to approach Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao at the public meeting in Charsadda, an intelligence official said. The attacker detonated the bomb moments later.

Sherpao, Pakistan’s top civilian security official, suffered minor injuries and was in stable condition, said Mohammed Khan, a police official. He was being shifted to a hospital in the nearby city of Peshawar.

Presumably, Sherpao was the target of the attack, which has claimed at least 12 lives and wounded 24. Nobody has yet claimed any responsibility for the attack.

My condolences to the families of the wounded and deceased.

FILED UNDER: Asia, Terrorism, World Politics, ,
Alex Knapp
About Alex Knapp
Alex Knapp is Associate Editor at Forbes for science and games. He was a longtime blogger elsewhere before joining the OTB team in June 2005 and contributed some 700 posts through January 2013. Follow him on Twitter @TheAlexKnapp.