THE ASSASSINATION of a Pakistan government minister happened as he and relatives gathered in his home village for the funeral of a Bradford man, it has emerged.

Shuja Khanzada, who was among more than a dozen people killed by a suicide bomber, was a cousin of retired textiles worker Hamayun Khan, of Princeville Street, Girlington, who died earlier this month from heart failure and had lived in Bradford since the 1960s.

Mr Khanzada had returned to his Shadi Khan village in the Attock district for funeral prayers on Sunday last week, some 100km from Islamabad, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the building where mourners had met, causing the roof to collapse.

On Saturday, mourners from across Bradford's Pakistani community gathered at the Pakistan Community Centre in White Abbey Road to say prayers for the Punjab province Home Minister and the other 11 people who died. All had links back to Bradford.

Parvez Khan, from Girlington, who was at the Bradford prayers this weekend, said: "Bradford's Pakistani community is in mourning. It's disgusting that advantage has been taken of people's grief to make an attack like this. The minister was a cousin of Hamayun's. He had visited Bradford many times, as had the others who were killed. They all had relatives here."

A news agency in Pakistan is quoting sources from Pakistan's Interior Ministry as saying the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Retired colonel Mr Khanzada, who took on his home ministry role in October last year, has been actively involved in major operations against terror outfits in the province. He was considered a vocal member of the Punjab Cabinet against militants and had received threats from al-Qaeda and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.