Akram Durrani escapes unhurt as two killed in Bannu bomb blast

BANNU: Two persons were killed and three others sustained injuries in a bomb attack on Minister for Housing and Works Muhammad Akram Khan Durrani in the Narmikhel area of the Frontier Region (FR) Bakkakhel on Thursday, eyewitnesses and local sources said.
The sources said that Akram Durrani, who is a leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), was going back to Bannu city in his official vehicle after attending a party meeting in FR Bakkakhel when he was targeted with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Narmikhel.
The minister escaped unhurt but two persons identified as Ihsan Khan and motorcyclist Arif were killed on the spot. The sources said that three other persons, including Shireen Khan Rauf Khan and the ambulance driver Abid, sustained injuries.
Ihsan, an orderly, Shireen Khan, a tubewell operator, dispenser Rauf Khan and driver Abid of the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ), Bannu, were travelling in the ambulance when it was hit by the remote-controlled bomb planted by suspected militants.
The ambulance of the District Headquarters Hospital was destroyed and several other vehicles were damaged in the explosion. The government declared an emergency in the DHQ Hospital soon after the incident. Security forces personnel rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area.
The sources said the soldiers launched a search operation in the surrounding areas but no arrest was made.Eyewitnesses said the explosion was so powerful that it was heard far and wide. They said the target was apparently Akram Durrani but he remained safe as the bomb went off after he had passed the area.
MPA Malik Riaz Khan’s brother Malik Niaz Khan and other JUI-F leaders Malik Naeem Khan, Maqbool Zaman Haider and Sakhi Zaman were accompanying the minister at the time of the attack. However, they remained unharmed.
Akram Durrani, who remained the chief minister of the erstwhile NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) for five years from 2002 to 2007, is a prominent leader of the JUI-F and a close confidant of party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
In the past, Maulana Fazlur Rehman had also been attacked with bombs and suicide bombers three times but he survived all the attempts on his life.APP adds: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack on the convoy of Akram Durrani. In a statement, the prime minister also expressed sorrow over the death of two men in the attack.