The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Peshawar

A suspected suicide blast ripped through an election rally held by an opposition party in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing 14 people and wounding 24, the interior minister said.

The attack happened at a rally of the Awami National Party (ANP), an ethnic Pashtun nationalist party, in the town of Charsadda in North West Frontier Province, Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said.

The bombing has further raised fears for the security of general elections on February 18, which have already been delayed by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto at a rally in December.

"Most probably it was a suicide attack," Nawaz told Dawn News television. "It was very close to the stage but all the ANP leaders who were there were not harmed."

Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema also confirmed the death toll. "Fourteen people were killed and 24 wounded in an apparent suicide attack at an election rally," he told AFP.

A suicide bombing at a mosque in Charsadda belonging to former interior minister Aftab Sherpao on December 21 killed at least 54 people.

Election rallies have been sparse since Bhutto's death in a suicide bomb and gun attack in Rawalpindi and after the government issued a "security advisory" for candidates to avoid big gatherings.