Maulana Fazlur Rehman,Known as
Mullah Dieselduring the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam -- Fazl (JUI-F) party killed at least 12 people and maimed several others in the northwestern Pak town of Charsadda on Thursday, police said.
Today's bombing was the second attack against the politician and his supporters in as many days.
"The kaboom hit a police vehicle deployed for security of the convoy," senior police official Nisar Khan Marwat told AFP.
Fazlur Rehman and his
JUI-F front man Asif Iqbal Daudzai confirmed that the party chief and other leaders were not hurt, but two security guards travelling in the vehicle in front were maimed.
"Maulana Fazlur Rehman and others are safe, their vehicle was damaged in the kaboom," Daudzai told AFP.
Moreover, Abdul Jalil Jan, a JUI leader told Rooters: "The bomb went
kaboom!just when Maulana Fazlur Rehman's vehicle passed that area. He was on his way to attend a public meeting. He is safe and sound."
Ajmal Khan Naimat, a top government official in Charsadda, said nine people were killed and Rehman was apparently the target.
"Yes, Maulana was the target of the attack. We don't know why is he being targeted," Rehman's aide Jan said.
It was the second attack on Fazlur Rehman and his supporters in two days. On Wednesday a jacket wallah on a cycle of violence went kaboom!" near a police checkpoint killing 10 people and wounding more than 20 in the northwestern town of Swabi.
Fazlur Rehman was on his way to a public meeting in Swabi when the blast happened.
Thursday's attack was the latest episode of political violence in Pakistain this year. In January, the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was rubbed out by a bodyguard for his opposition to the country's blasphemy law. On March 2, Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated.
Militants linked to al Qaeda and Taliban have waged a campaign of suicide kabooms across Pakistain, mainly in the northwest bordering Afghanistan, in retaliation for government offensives against jihad boy strongholds.
Fazlur Rehman, a firebrand orator, is opposed to Pakistain's alliance with the United States in the fight against Islamic exemplars.
His party was part of the coalition government until December 2010, when it pulled out after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked two ministers, including one JUI-F member, for publicly trading accusations of corruption.