Parliamentary candidate killed in armed attack in Pakistan

Parliamentary candidate Kaleemullah Khan and his two bodyguards were killed in an armed attack in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

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According to the Dawn newspaper, unidentified individuals carried out an armed attack on the vehicle of Kaleemullah Khan, a parliamentary candidate for the general elections to be held on February 8, in the North Waziristan region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Authorities announced that Khan and his 2 bodyguards lost their lives. Khan was running as an independent parliamentary candidate from the North Waziristan region.

ATTACKS INCREASE AHEAD OF GENERAL ELECTIONS

An armed attack was also carried out against Aslam Buledi, a parliamentary candidate from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), in the Turbat region of Balochistan. Buledi, who was injured, was taken to the hospital.

Ali Mardan Domki, the Chief Minister of the interim government in Balochistan, strongly condemned the attack and ordered that high-level security be provided to all parliamentary candidates in the province.

There has been an observed increase in terrorist incidents in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces ahead of the general elections on February 8. Former parliamentarian Mohsin Dawar escaped unharmed from an armed attack on his convoy in North Waziristan on January 3.

Qari Khairullah, a parliamentary candidate from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, was also targeted in a bomb attack in the Bajaur region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on January 3. Khairullah survived the attack.