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Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for deadly election suicide attack

The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for Tuesday's suicide attack which left at least 20 people dead in Peshawar, a city near the Afghan border.

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By
Sophia Saifi
and
Saleem Mehsud (CNN)
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (CNN) — The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for Tuesday's suicide attack which left at least 20 people dead in Peshawar, a city near the Afghan border.

Another 63 people were injured in the attack, according to Zulfikar Ali, the spokesman for Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital. It is one of the deadliest militant attacks in Pakistan this year and the first major attack as the country prepares for a general election on July 25.

In a statement, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khurasani said that the "successful bombing (in Peshawar) is the beginning of revenge," and that "details of the suicide bombing will be shared soon."

The dead include Awami National Party (ANP) candidate Haroom Bilour, who was due to contest this month's election.

Bilour's father, former provincial minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour, was also killed in a suicide attack carried out by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012.

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