A suicide bomber killed a senior provincial minister and seven other people at a political meeting in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.

The Taliban targeted Bilour in revenge for the death of one of their elders

The bomber struck when around 100 people including the provincial leadership of the Awami National Party (ANP) had gathered at a meeting in the city of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The blast killed Bashir Bilour, the number two to the chief minister of the province, which is on the frontline of Pakistan’s fight against homegrown militancy and is frequently hit by gun and bomb attacks.

The 69-year-old Bilour, a fierce opponent of the Pakistani Taliban, suffered severe injuries in Saturday’s blast and died in hospital, Arbab Ayub Jan, a minister in the provincial cabinet of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told AFP.

A notice on the information board of Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital also announced Bilour and seven others were dead and said 18 people were injured in the attack.

Bilour had “wounds to the chest and stomach. We tried our best to save his life” but he died during surgery, Arshad Javed, a senior doctor at the hospital told AFP.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said they targeted Bilour in revenge for the death of one of their elders. “We claim responsibility for killing Bashir Ahmed Bilour. It is revenge for the martyrdom of our elder Sheikh Naseeb Khan,” TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP. Khan was a teacher at a madrassa where many Taliban members were educated.

Bomb squad experts said the suicide bomber detonated his explosives when the meeting was at its peak.

“The suicide bomber walked into the house where the meeting was taking place and detonated his vest,” Shafqat Malik, chief of the bomb disposal squad, told AFP.

Asif Iqbal, a senior police official, told AFP the dead also included Bilour’s secretary and a policeman, as well as ANP workers. Four policemen were among the wounded.

As well as ruling in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the secular ANP is also part of the Pakistan People’s Party-led national coalition government in Islamabad.

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