Haroon Bilour, the Awami National Party (ANP) leader killed on Tuesday night in a suicide attack in Peshawar, was not the first in his family to be killed for speaking out against the Taliban. In 2012, Haroon had lost his father in a similar fashion. Bashir Ahmed Bilour, an outspoken critic of the Taliban, was killed for attending an election meeting.
Families that are into politics in Pakistan are exposed to inevitable danger as they fight for democracy, and the Bilours are no different. Their story is one of courage. Haroon was only 47. His son Danial Bilour was working with him on his campaign and was to attend the election gathering where the suicide attack took place. However, his father called him a few minutes before the event and asked him to give it a miss.
Danial urged ANP workers soon after the incident to not “lose hope''. "I feel proud to say that everyone present here is Haroon Bilour,'' he has been quoted as saying.
In a heartfelt tribute, Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto tweeted, "Every attack and every son that stands over his father's grave, every father that stands before his son's body, reminds me of what Faiz said: that Pakistan is a congregation of pain.." Her cousin, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, cancelled his rally in Peshwar in Peshawar. The ANP and the PPP were allies.
The ANP, a secular leftist Pashtun political outfit, bear the brunt of Taliban attacks as its secular ideology clashes with Taliban extremism. In the past decade, the party, which had a significant hold in the Pashtun dominated areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has lost many members to violent attacks.
However, this hasn't weakened their resolve to either fight the elections or take on the Taliban. Founded by Bacha Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi, the ANP has a significant presence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the last elections, the party was defeated by Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Violence has always been part of Pakistan elections. The lead up to the election in 2013 was one of the bloodiest in the history of Pakistan. There were 148 reported terrorist attacks and 97 incidents of political violence between January till May 15 that year. Close to 300 people lost their lives and 885 others were injured.
The Awami National Party (ANP) faced 37 terrorist attacks during this period. It was the most attacked party, followed by the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) with 12 attacks each, according toa report by the Pak Institute of Peace Studies. “While militants hit hard ANP and PPP in almost every region of Pakistan, MQM was frequently targeted in Karachi,'' the report stated.
Meanwhile, the Army has promised to deploy 3,71,000 troops on polling stations.