Eleven of the 13 wounded persons rushed to Civil Hospital, Mir Ali, while two were shifted to Agency Headquarters Hospital of Miran Shah. The attack also claimed the lives of two influential tribesmen, including North Waziristan ANP President Haji Anwar Shah and Haji Bakhtiaruddin.
The other victims were identified as Akbar Khan, Zabid Khan, Khaliq Shah and Ehkaam, the formers two victims were the members of the Khasaddar Force. A number of the injured were stated to be in critical conditions.
According to eye-witnesses, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the vehicle, carrying Nisar Ali Khan at 2:00 pm in village Eidak, tehsil Mir Ali of the troubled North Waziristan Agency.
The Political Parties Act, a law regulating political activities in Pakistan, is not extended to the tribal region, bordering Afghanistan due to which the candidates participate in the polls as independents.
The actual target of the suicide bomber was Haji Nekam Khan Eidak, head of the traditional tribal lashkar, constituted for the expulsion of the foreign militants from the agency. The two victims, Haji Anwar Shah and Bakhtiaruddin, were also active members of the anti-foreign militants force in the area. The traditional tribal Lashkar is active against foreign militants for the last five months.
This was the second attack on the electioneering of ANP. On Saturday last, 27 supporters of the party have been killed and 50 injured in district Charsadda, a settled area of the province. The party has condemned the attack a termed it as deliberate attempt to harass the people before February 18 polls.
A number of suicide bombing incidents had been occurred in North Waziristan Agency, but it was the first incident, targeting the election convoy of the party in the area. The influential political figures, including opposition leader in the dissolved National Assembly, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, former interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and NWFP PML-Q President Engineer Amir Muqaam had limited their movements in the election campaign.