Suicide Bombing in Pakistan

Taliban attack another political rally in northwestern Pakistan. Taliban consolidating control of Waziristan, after signing ceasefire with Pakistani army.

At least seven people have been killed and 13 injured in a suicide attack on an election candidate in north-western Pakistan, officials and witnesses say.
They say that the attack took place in the tribal area of North Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan.

It is the second attack on the Awami National Party (ANP),a Pashtun nationalist group, in three days.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber struck at an ANP rally in the Charsadda district of the North West Frontier Province.

More than 20 people were killed in that attack.

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Monday morning's bomb attack took place in the village of Eidak, in North Waziristan's Mir Ali subdivision, officials of the local administration told the BBC Urdu service.

They said that the attacker rammed a car laden with explosives into the vehicle of an election candidate who was in a convoy going to a public meeting.

The candidate, Nisar Khan, escaped unhurt in the attack, but some important ANP local leaders were killed, according a local journalist who witnessed the attack.

The BBC's Ilyas Khan in Karachi says that this is the first attack on the ANP leadership in the tribal areas, where the party has traditionally commanded considerable support.

Our correspondent says that the ANP has become the target of Islamic militants, themselves predominantly ethnic Pashtun, because of its secular and progressive politics.