Senior ANP leader Bashir Bilour martyred

PESHAWAR: Senior Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bashir Ahmed Bilour passed away in Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital after doctors failed to resuscitate him. He was critically injured in a suicide attack in Peshawar.

The blast also left 9 others dead and 17 injured, sources said.

The attack took place when the Awami National Party’s President for KPK Bashir Ahmed Bilour was exiting the residence of the party’s local leader following a meeting, along with his personal secretary and SHO Kabuli Police Station.

Both the personal secretary Noor Mohammed as well as the SHO, Sattar Khan were killed on the spot while 18 others were injured. According to hospital sources, Bashir Bilour was brought to the hospital in critical condition and was unconscious.

According to eyewitnesses, the suicide bomber detonated the explosives strapped to his body at a close distance from Bashir Bilour, inflicting critical wounds to his chest and stomach that later proved fatal.

Bilour had repeatedly termed the fight against terrorism as ‘our own battle’.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Later, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Asharaf announced one-day mourning in the country on the assassination of the senior leader of ANP which is one of the allies of the ruling coalition.

According to sources, the funeral prayer of the martyred ANP leader will be held at Colonel Sher Khan Army Stadium here at 2:00 PM on Sunday. Later, he will be laid to rest in Syed Hassan Pir Badsha Berri Bagh graveyard.

The body of Bashir Bilour will be lifted from his elder brother Ghulam Ahmed Bilour’s residence.

ANP Chief, Asfandyar Wali termed the demise of Bashir Ahmed Bilour as the loss of the entire country and nation, and vowed to continue the fight against ‘the terrorist mindset’.