Former head of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Qazi Husain Ahmad, was targeted in a suicide bomb attack on Monday morning in the Mohmand tribal agency along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He escaped unhurt as the female suicide bomber detonated the explosives just after his vehicle – moving in a convoy - had passed her.
This is one of the rare instances when a religious right wing politician has been targeted by terrorists and the incident did raise a number of eyebrows across the country. Four people including a bodyguard of Mr. Ahmad were injured in the attack. Others were JI workers who were accompanying him to a public meeting about a kilometer away from the blast site.
No terrorist group had claimed responsibility for the attack till late in the evening but there were reports in the local media that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud had recently criticized Mr. Ahmad for supporting the “U.S. - allied government”.
