Islamists Strike Again: Murdering 18 In Pakistani Bombing

A suicide bomber struck at an election rally in northwestern Pakistan Saturday, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 25, police and civilian officials said.

The blast occurred at a rally of the Awami National Party — a secular, ethnic Pashtun group — in the town of Charsadda in the turbulent North West Frontier province, where Islamic extremists operate.

Area police chief Mohammed Khan said 18 people died. Local television stations quoted party officials as saying 20 were killed.

Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said the attack was believed carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives "very close to the stage" where party officials were assembled.

Afrasiab Khattak, the party's provincial leader and a prominent human rights champion, was addressing the rally but told Dawn television that he was not hurt.

Nawaz said Islamic militants were threatening all the political parties in the northwest ahead of the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.

This comes a day after Scotland Yard issued its report claiming that Benazir Bhutto died in the way that the Pakistani government claimed she did - that she died not of a bullet wound, but from the blast and hitting some object as she crumpled down into her vehicle.

The Islamists are opposed to any political parties operating that may offer up anything less than Islamic law. The Islamists are the enemies of democracy, and will seek to intimidate and coerce the local populations to do their bidding.