Islamabad: Unidentified assailants shot dead a female politician belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP) in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar overnight, police and media reports said on Saturday.
Najma Hanif was gunned down after the attackers broke into her home late at night on Friday in the upscale Hyatabad neighbourhood of the capital city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Police said she was hit in the head and face and died on the way to a hospital. Her body was sent to her native town in Swabi district.
Her husband Hanif Jadoon, also an ANP activist, was killed along with a son and security guard in July 2011 in a suicide bomb attack in Swabi.
ANP chief Asfandyar Wali condemned the killing and said the sacrifices of Najma’s family would always be remembered.
The secular party ruled the province for five years after winning a majority in the provincial assembly in the 2008 general election. It was defeated in the general election held in May this year by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), now in power in the region.
ANP has been a target of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). According to the party, hundreds of its members, including some leaders and provincial legislators, have been killed over the past five years.
