By IRNA
Peshawar : A bomb blast at an election rally in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday killed at least 20 people, the provincial Health Interior Minister said.
The bomb detonated at the rally of a national group ‘Awami National Party’ (ANP) at a small town of Neheaqi in Charsadda district, some 40 kilometers from Peshawar, the provincial capital.
Health Minister of North West Frontier Province Syed Kamal Shah told reporters that 20 people were killed and over 20 injured.
The Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said that 14 people were killed and 24 people injured in the explosion.
“Most probably it was suicide attack near the stage,” Khan said.
But the local mayor said it was not a suicide attack but the bomb was planted at the meeting place near the stage.
He said that no prominent leader of the ANP was injured or killed.
The ANP provincial President Afrasiab Khattak was scheduled to address the rally for party candidates Bashir Umairzai and Masom Shah.
The injured were shifted to local hospitals in Charsadda and several were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar.