BAJAUR: At least three people, including former Senator Hidayat Ullah, were killed in a “remote controlled” bomb blast that targeted a vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajur district on Wednesday, police said.
According to Deputy Police Inspector Baht Munir, the incident took place in the village of Damadola Bajaur, where the former senator’s vehicle was targeted by a remote-controlled device.
Hidayat, a former independent senator from the former Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata), said he was killed along with two others in a bomb blast.
He went to Damadola village in connection with the election of a candidate in PK-22 constituency – Nejeb Ullah Khan’s nephew. He was returning to Bajaur’s Khar when he faced the horrific bomb attack, police said.
According to police, Malik Irfan from Niag Banda area of Tire district and Nazar Din from Navagai were among those killed in the horrific explosion that destroyed the vehicle.
Hidayat belongs to an influential political family, his father Haji Bismillah Khan, a former member of the National Assembly, and his brother Shaukat Ullah, a former governor.
He was twice elected as an independent senator from 2012 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2024 – in addition to being the chairman of the Standing House Committee on Aviation and a member of the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta).
The Bajaur incident was condemned by President Asif Ali Zardari, Senate Chairman Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and others.
President Zardari strongly condemned the terrorist incident and expressed grief over the death of a former senator and others in the Bajaur blast. He offered his condolences to the bereaved family and prayed for eternal rest.
