At least 27 people were killed and 50 injured in a suicide attack on a public meeting of a candidate of Awami National Party in Shabqadar, district Charsadda. The victims are the workers of ANP who gathered to attend a public meeting of Bashir Khan Omarzai, ANP candidate from NA-8 Charsadda-II.
The party provincial president Afrasiab Khattak and Omarzai were due to address the meeting. Twenty bodies were taken to Shabqadar hospital. The injured included 11 children who were rushed to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, Shabqadar and Lady Reading Hospital where the condition of some of the injured was stated to be critical. Two of the injured children were brothers.
The injured were identified as Taseer, Zarif Gul, Wasiullah, Mohibullah, Jauhar, Gauhar, Yasir Ali, Gulab Jan, Malang Shah, Naseem Khan, Mehboob Khan and others. Two of the injured are the personnel of the Frontier Constabulary while Syed Masoom Shah, ANP candidate for provincial assembly constituency was also reported injured in the blast.
According to Zahid Khan, a central leader of the party, it was a suicide attack in which the bomber blew himself up near the stage of the public meeting. He criticised the government for failure to protect lives of general public during election rallies.