PML-Q MNA survives shoe bomb attack

QUETTA, Nov 9: Mir Ahmadan Bugti, a National Assembly member, escaped an assassination attempt on Friday when a bomb planted in his shoe exploded as he put them on outside a mosque after prayers, officials said. The blast in Dera Bugti, about 500 kilometres east of Quetta, capital of the restive province of Balochistan, wounded 12 people, but their injuries were not life-threatening, police and local officials said. Bugti, a lawmaker with the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) party, which is part of the ruling national coalition, left his shoes outside the mosque while he was offering Friday prayers, provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani told AFP. Someone planted an explosive device in one of them which detonated as he put the shoe back on. “Bugti’s leg was badly wounded, a helicopter has been arranged to fly him to Quetta,” Durrani said. In 2008, Ahmadan Bugti’s son Liaquat Ali Bugti survived two separate targeted bomb blasts. Separatist militants, the Baloch Republican Army, had claimed responsibility of one of the attacks. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assassination attempt on Ahamadan Bugti’s life on Friday, but, apart from separatist insurgents, Balochistan is also plagued by extremist militants as well as sectarian violence.]]>