MINGORA: A member of the NWFP Assembly, Dr Shamsher Ali Khan, was killed and 11 others, including his two brothers, sustained injuries in a suicide attack in his village Kanju Dheray in Swat on Tuesday.
Sources said the bomber targeted the ANP lawmaker in the afternoon when he was busy exchanging Eid greetings in his Hujra with guests and people of his constituency.
Sources said an unidentified teenaged bomber entered the Hujra and blew himself up as soon as he approached the MPA.
The sources said Dr Shamsher Ali died on the spot while 11 others, including his two brothers, Shaukat Ali Khan and Wakeel Khan, sustained serious injuries. Due to his precarious condition, Shaukat Ali Khan was flown to Peshawar in a helicopter, the sources added.
The other injured were identified as Shujaat Ali, Amjad, Sadique Akbar, Razi Mand, Muhammad Qayyum, Rahmani Gul, Muhammad Shah and Paja Khan.
Later, Dr Shamsher Ali was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard in Kanju Dheray. Strict security measures were adopted during the funeral prayers.
His funeral was attended by NWFP Minister for Science and Technology Ayub Asharay, MPA Waqar Ali Khan, MNA Amir Muqam, Deputy Inspector General of Police Malakand region Idrees Khan, District Coordination Officer Swat Atifur Rahman, Brigadier Salman Akbar besides a large number of people.
Three-day mourning was announced in the district by the provincial government. The Swat Qaumi Jirga also announced three-day mourning for the deceased lawmaker. Dr Shamsher Ali was born in 1950 in a political family of the area.
Since his student life, he remained associated with the ANP and contested five elections on the ANP ticket for the NWFP Assembly. However, he made it for the first time to the provincial assembly in the February 2008 general elections.
By profession, Dr Shamsher Ali was a lawyer and remained president of the Swat Bar Association twice and general secretary thrice. He also remained the ANP district president for Swat.
His injured brothers, Shaukat Ali Khan and Wakeel Khan, were earlier kidnapped by the militants when the military operation Rah-e-Rast was launched in the district. However, they were released later but the militants killed his nephew.
Dr Shamsher Ali remained an active member of the provincial government committee, which held peace talks with the militants before operation Rah-e-Rast in the district.
Abdur Rashid Khan, father of the slain MPA, said: “If each and every member of my family is killed for the sake of peace in Swat we are ready to render that sacrifice for our people. I am too willing to lay down my life and no sacrifice will be big enough to make Swat a peaceful place again.”
APP adds: President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan have strongly condemned the suicide attack on Dr Shamsher Ali. In their separate messages, they said the terrorists involved in such heinous crimes would not be spared.
They prayed to Almighty Allah to rest the departed soul in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved family to bear the loss with equanimity.
Asfandyar said his party was playing the frontline role in war against terror and that was why the terrorists were targeting its leaders and workers across the country.
He said that suicide attack on him in Charsadda, killing of their party MPAs Alamzeb and Dr Shamsher and scores of other violent incidents targeted against the ANP leaders spoke of the vengeance of the terrorists. He said the ANP would not hesitate to offer any sacrifice for the cause of the country.
