SWAT: A roadside bomb blast in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Matta area on Wednesday damaged the vehicle of Awami National Party (ANP) leader Mumtaz Ali Khan, police said.
According to Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Umar, the explosion occurred in the Shakardara area when Khan was on his way to attend a funeral. The bomb, planted roughly 300 feet from his home, went off as his vehicle passed by. No casualties were reported.
Police and bomb disposal teams cordoned off the area and launched a search operation immediately after the attack. DPO Umar said the Swat police were “fully prepared to deal with all situations” and had stepped up security in the region.
Khan, who serves as the ANP’s senior vice president, escaped unhurt. The party’s central president, Aimal Wali Khan, condemned the incident, calling it “an organised attempt to silence voices that speak for peace, tolerance, and democracy.”
“The people of Swat have made unparalleled sacrifices against terrorism and extremism,” the ANP said in a post on X, urging authorities to carry out a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The party reiterated its stance that terrorism targets “all humanity,” not just individual groups or sects.
The ANP has faced repeated attacks in recent years. In July, Maulana Khan Zeb and a policeman were gunned down in Bajaur district, while in September, party worker Mir Azam Khan was shot dead in the same area. In 2018, senior leader Haroon Bilour was killed in a suicide bombing in Peshawar, six years after his father, Bashir Bilour, was also assassinated in a similar attack.
