The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistani police said on Sunday they suspected Islamist militants based in the tribal areas on the Afghan border were behind a suicide attack that killed up to 25 people at an election rally in the northwest a day earlier.

The lone bomber blew himself up in the midst of a rally of the opposition Awami National Party (ANP) in Charsadda town in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Provincial police chief Sharif Virk told Reuters that the severed head of the bomber had been found, and militants from the nearby Mohmand tribal region could have been responsible.

Pakistan votes for a new National Assembly and four provincial assemblies on Feb. 18, and while it isn't a presidential election President Pervez Musharraf's future could be at stake if the polls result in a hostile parliament.

ANP is a secular, ethnic Pashtun party competing with Musharraf's allies who were in charge of the central government and religious parties who have held power in NWFP.

A party spokesman said ANP believed the attack was part of a plot to spoil or delay elections that the parties in power were likely to lose. "This attack is carried out by the forces who want to subvert elections," Zahid Khan, ANP's top spokesman, said.

The attack took place inside a house where ANP leaders were addressing around 200 supporters. "The bomber appears to be standing in a corner and all of a sudden pushed his way to the middle and blew himself up," Farman Ali, deputy mayor of Charsadda, said.