Lashkar-e-Jhangvi said it was in response to last month’s killing of its leader, Malik Ishaq.
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Khanzada, 71, was holding a public meeting at his constituency-level office in Attock district, 50 miles north-west of capital Islamabad, when the suicide bombers struck. More than 35 people had gathered to pay condolence for a close relative of the minister who had died on Saturday in Britain.
The blast has also claimed the life of Deputy Superintendent of Police Shaukat Shah among others.
A bomb killed one of Pakistan’s provincial ministers and at least eight others when it destroyed the minister’s home on Sunday in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s political heartland, rescue officials said.
Speaking at a televised meeting of his cabinet on Monday, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif vowed to “move forward with no holds barred” to take on the militants responsible.
Khanazada, a retired colonel of the Pakistan Army, succumbed to serious injuries he suffered after being buried under the rubble of the building, Punjab chief minister’s advisor Syeed Ilahi told Geo TV.
“Such dastardly coward attempts can’t dent our national resolve to eliminate the menace, Khanzada Shaheed was a bold officer whose sacrifice for the greater cause of cleansing Pakistan won’t go to waste”, army spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said.
Earlier this year, Khanzada had said the Punjab government received threat alerts for airports, prisons, schools and sensitive installations, besides targeted killing of known personalities and kidnap for ransom.
Pressure on militant groups in Pakistan has been growing since the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases, a policy that Khanzada supported.
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Spokesperson of the rescue department Deeba Shehnaz said 15 bodies were shifted to hospital while two of the injured were in critical condition and were undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit, Pakistani media reported. Speaking as the death toll rises to 20 in Pakistan, he condemned the attack, telling reporters that his country will make every effort to “weed out terrorism”.
