Bomb blast at lawmaker’s office kills 7 in central Pakistan

A suicide bomber blew up his explosives at the political office of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Amjad Farooq Khosa in Tonsa Sharif area of Dera Ghazi Khan district on Wednesday, killing at least seven people, officials said.

“The explosion killed at least seven people and wounded two others”, police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar told AFP. A few of the victims are said to be in critical condition.

The bombing comes months after PML-N lawmaker, Punjab home minister Colonel (retd) Shuja Khanzada, was martyred in a suicide attack on his political office in his native Shadi Khan village in Attock.

Local journalist Saleem Buzdar, who has reported on the blast shortly after the attack, said that eyewitnesses saw a young man in his early twenties with long hair who came to Khosa’s office and remained hidden in a large group of people before blowing himself up.

Khosa was in Islamabad when the attack happened, Buzdar said.

The explosion took place at the office of Sardar Amjad Khosa, a member of the National Assembly, in Taunsa town near Dera Ghazi Khan city in the southern part of Punjab province.

Khosa condemned the blast, saying it was an act of terrorism. “If he would have been at his political office, the death toll could be higher as the number of people present at his office could be many times more”.

District police officer Mubashir Maikan also confirmed the attack and casualties.

Pakistan has always been under attack from local and al-Qaida-linked foreign Islamic militants, killing tens of thousands of people in over a decade.