Ghulam Ahmed Bilour backtracks from claim "Haroon not killed by Taliban"

 

PESHAWAR: In a volt-face, Awami National Party (ANP) leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour remarked “I never said that Taliban did not kill Haroon. I stated that those people, who got most advantage from the killing of Haroon, were involved. I don’t understand as to why we are being targeted.”

ANP senior vice president said this during his party’s press conference in Peshawar.

A day earlier, Mr. Bilour claimed that Taliban was not involved in his nephew’s killing; it was done by “our own people”. The suicide attack in Peshawar was an “inside job which benefitted our own people not Taliban,” he claimed.

ANP leader also expressed his displeasure over Chief Justice of Pakistan’s directive to withdraw security from politicians.

“I have respect for the chief justice. But he should not interfere in administrative affairs,” he told media men while sharing that his slain nephew required security as terrorists can easily attack politicians.

The veteran politician further recounted that such terrorist attacks cannot scare ANP workers and the party would enthusiastically resume its election campaign.

Haroon Bilour was among 21 people who were killed and 75 others injured during a suicide blast in Peshawar’s Yakatut area on Tuesday. He was campaigning for the upcoming elections when a suicide attacker reportedly entered his corner meeting and blew himself up.

Bilour’s father, Bashir Ahmed Bilour, too had lost his life in a 2012 suicide bomb explosion in the Qissa Khwani bazar. He was the eldest son of Bashir Bilour and was contesting elections from the same constituency as his late father.