Peshawar, Nov 12: Pakistan’s unit of the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has said that a NWFP minister was the prime target of yesterday’s suicide attack at Peshawar sports stadium. But, fortunately, the minister survived, though two of his guards were killed in the attack.

Claiming responsibility of the attack, The TTP operating in the semi-tribal Darra Adam Khel said that senior NWFP minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour was their target.

Violence linked to Pakistan’s role in the US-led war on terror has claimed the lives of more than 1300 people in suicide and bomb attacks since July 2007. Many of the attacks have targeted police and security forces. Most of them have either been claimed by or blamed on Taliban.

A suicide bomber had blown himself up at a packed Qayyum Stadium in Peshawar on Tuesday evening, killing four people and wounding 13. The attack was made as fireworks marked the conclusion of the weeklong 3rd Inter-Provincial Games, bringing a gloomy end to the event that marked a revival of cultural activity in the terror-hit province.

NWFP Governor Owais Ghani had just left the venue and senior minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour was on his way out, the paper quoted NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain as telling reporters.

Bashir Bilour – the apparent target – said that two of his guards were among the dead and three had been injured. “I got a new life,” he said after the blast.

Politicians of Bilour’s Awami National Party have been targeted in the past by Taliban and the party’s chief Asfandyar Wali Khan narrowly survived a suicide attack last month. (ANI)