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A suicide bombing in northwestern Pakistan targeted a party that could prove very attractive to the United States as it works to solve the jihadist problem in the Pakistani borderlands. (With Stratfor map)

A suicide bomber blew himself up after struggling with security guards at the entrance of the house of Asfandyar Wali Khan, the leader of the ruling Awami National Party (ANP) in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). Khan escaped unharmed, but at least four others died in the attack in Kohat district.

While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Islamist militants have waged a long and violent campaign in the province. According to Pakistani newspaper Dawn, two previous attacks in Swat district using explosives and small arms Sept. 27 killed a local ANP leader and the provincial minister for science and information technology. These attacks show a growing trend of militant Islamists targeting members of the ANP, with the Oct. 2 attack representing an escalation given Khan’s status within the party.

That jihadists are targeting members of the ANP is unsurprising. The party took over the government of NWFP in February after winning local elections, thus ending the rule of an alliance of Islamist parties that had ruled since the 2002 elections. Under the rule of the Islamist alliance, local Taliban and other militant Islamist groups proliferated in the NWFP exacerbated by the war in neighboring Afghanistan, which saw foreign fighters seeking refuge in the borderlands of Pakistan.