Elections: At least 13 people killed in an attack on an election rally in Pakistan

Stand: 02:20 | Reading time: 2 minutes

B A suicide bombing in northwestern Pakistan during an election campaign left at least 13 people dead and at least 54 wounded. The murderer blew himself up Tuesday at an Awami National Party (ANP) event in the city of Peshawar, police said. As a result, among the dead was a politician.

Police have targeted badbadination. Among those killed, there was Haroon Bilour, a politician from the ANP, said Qazi Jameel, the Peshawar police chief. According to the police, the badbadin ignited his explosive device when Bilour wanted to address some 200 supporters for a speech. "It was a suicide attack and he returned to Bilour," said policeman Shafqat Malik.

The politician wanted to run in the July 25 legislative elections. He came from an influential family of politicians from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Hours before the attack, a spokesman for the Pakistani army stressed the precariousness of the security situation in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. Initially, no one confessed to the act

Local television showed ambulances rushing to the scene of the attack. Some people cried. An AFP journalist saw on the spot dead bodies of victims, shoes, hats and broken chairs

The ANP, which resolutely opposes extremist groups such as Taliban has been repeatedly targeted by Islamist extremists. Bilour's father, ANP politician, Bashir Bilour, was also killed in a suicide bombing in 2012.

Peshawar borders Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas. The mountainous region difficult to access at the border with Afghanistan is a haven for extremist groups of both countries, and smugglers and drug traffickers use the city as a transit point.

The army has managed to repel militant groups in recent years, but the region continues to commit serious attacks. They are mainly directed against politicians and security forces. But also religious meetings and even schools were the target of attacks.