Security guards prevented a suicide bomber from killing Pakistan's interior minister in an attack at a political gathering in a northwestern town Saturday that left at least 22 dead and 35 wounded, officials said.Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao sustained minor injuries, police said. Footage broadcast on state television showed the minister walking to his car after the blast, with bloodstains on his face and white shalwar kameez tunic.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion will fall on Islamic militants who have repeatedly targeted top Pakistani officials, including President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for support of the U.S.-led war on terror.
The suicide bomber struck soon after Sherpao had finished addressing a public gathering of his political party in an open field in the northwestern town of Charsadda.
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