PESHAWAR: Unidentified persons targeted
the vehicle of MPA Alamgir Khan Khalil with an improvised explosive
device near his residence in the Pawakaye area here on Sunday.

He remained unhurt however his vehicle was
damaged in the blast. It was second attempt on the life of Mr Khalil,
an MPA of Awami National Party.

The MPA was returning in the afternoon from a
funeral in his village when unidentified persons blasted the device,
said Bashirdad Khan, the SHO of Pishtakharaye police station.

He believed that the device weighed about
one kilogram and the MPA was its target. The blast smashed the
windscreen of the land-cruiser vehicle in which Mr Khalil was traveling.

It also damaged the boundary wall of an empty plot near which the device was planted.

He was accompanied by a driver and a
gunman. All the occupants of the vehicle escaped unhurt. The incident
took place near the residence of the MPA.

Mr Khalil told journalists that he had no
enmity and this was second attempt on his life. He believed that the
incident might be the handiwork of the militants, who had been
targeting ANP leadership and workers.

“Our struggle against terrorism will continue as we cannot be cowed down through such acts of terrorism,” he added.

Provincial Minister for Information Mian
Iftikhar Hussain, who visited the place of occurrence, said that so far
around 300 leaders and workers of ANP had been killed in such acts of
terrorism. He added that militants were on the run and in sheer
desperation they had been targeting elected representatives and others.

Mr Khalil was elected MPA from PF-6, which
mostly comprises rural areas on the western outskirts of the provincial
capital situated in close vicinity to the Khyber tribal region. The ANP
has already lost two of its MPAs in terrorism-related incidents last
year.