Lahore: Shuja Khanzada, Pakistan’s Punjab province Home Minister was assassinated on Sunday along with eight others when a suicide bomber blew himself up at his house in Shadi Khal village in Attock district.
Commissioner Rawalpindi region Zahid Saeed said “Eight persons have been killed and several others injured after the bomber hit the minister’s house”.
Saeed said DSP Shaukat Shah also died in the blast. Rescue work is going on to retrieve the people trapped under the building which collapsed due to the bombing.
“The hall of the building where the meeting was underway collapsed in the blast and over three-dozen people including the minister were trapped in the rubble,” Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters.
Inspector General of Punjab Police Mushtaq Sukhera said the security personnel of the minister were with him but the suicide bomber managed to enter the house of the minister.
Khanzada assumed the charge of home ministry in October 2014 and has been actively involved in major operations against terror outfits in the province.
Khanzada is considered as a vocal member of Punjab cabinet against militants. He had received threats from Al-Qaeda and Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
Khanzada, a retired colonel, was holding a jirga (reconciliatory meeting with his area people) at his house in Shadi Khel, some 100 kms from capital city of Islamabad, when the bomber managed to enter there and blew himself up.