PTI candidate Ikramullah Gandapur killed in DI Khan suicide attack
Gandapur was said to be leaving his home for an election meeting when his vehicle was targetted.
The PTI candidate was among four injured in the attack and succumbed to his wounds at the hospital. He was first taken to District Headquarters Hospital but was then shifted to the Combined Military Hospital's (CMH) operation theatre owing to his injuries.
"Two police guards and Gandapur's driver were injured in the attack," an official told, adding that their condition is critical.
Investigations are under way, the police said, adding that severed limbs of the suicide bomber have also been recovered from the blast site.
Gandapur’s brother, Israrullah, was killed on October 16, 2013 in a suicide bombing while greeting visitors on Eid-ul-Azha in his hometown of Kulachi.
He was a serving minister in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government at the time of his death and elected from the then-PK-67 constituency.
Gandapur was elected on his brother’s seat after a by-election following his death.
Their third brother, Inamullah Khan Gandapur, is a senior bureaucrat who has served in the Federal Investigation Agency and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
Their father, Sardar Inayaltullah Khan Gandapur, served as the chief minister and finance minister of then-NWFP government in the 1970s.
A string of attacks has taken place in the current month. On July 7, at least seven people, including a candidate of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), were injured when a convoy came under a bomb attack in Bannu.
On July 10, a suicide blast had killed Awami National Party (ANP) leader Haroon Bilour and 19 others in Peshawar's Yaktoot area. The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which had also claimed responsibility for 2012 attack that killed Haroon's father, Bashir Bilour.
An attack on a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) convoy in Bannu on July 13 followed the tragic Peshawar incident. The Bannu incident claimed lives of at least four people, while 10 others were injured in the explosion.
Later the same day, one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country's history took place which claimed the lives of over 150 people. Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) candidate Nawab Siraj Raisani was among the martyred when a suicide bomber blew himself up during Raisani's election rally in Mastung's Darengarh area.
A week after the Mastung blast, on July 16, ANP leader Daud Khan Achakzai was injured after unidentified persons opened fire on the guest house of the party's candidate Zmrak Khan Achakzai in Chaman.
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