Explosion in the city of Charsadda killed at least 25 people in a crowd of supporters of the secular Awami Nationalist Party moments before the party’s provincial president Afrasiab Khattak had arrived and nine days before national elections.
The Awami Nationalist Party is believed to be targeted by extremists because it is expected to claim a majority at the polls in the Northwest Frontier province and to form an alliance with the Pakistan People’s Party — the opposition group that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had led before her death.