At least 14 people have been killed and more than 20 injured Saturday in a suspected suicide bombing at an election rally in northwest Pakistan.

The bombing occurred at a rally of the Awami National Party (ANP), an ethnic Pashtum nationalist party, in the town of Charsadda in North West Frontier Province. “The bomb happened at a rally which our leader Afrasiab Khattak was attending,” said Zahid Khan, information secretary of the ANP, according to Reuters.

North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, is considered the most dangerous zone in Pakistan, as militancy and violence are present here more than anywhere else in the country.

“Fourteen people were killed and 24 were wounded,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Brigadier Javed Cheema told reporters from local Dawn News television.

Cheema added that the blast was very close to the stage but all the ANP leaders present at the scene at the time were not injured.

According to BBC’s Barbara Plett, the ANP is seen as an anti-Islamist force and suspicion for the suicide attack is likely to fall on Al-Qaeda of jihadist elements.

It is not the first time when Charsadda is struck by a suicide attack. More than 50 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a local mosque belonging to former interior minister Aftab Sherpao on December 21.

The attack has already made authorities fear for the February 18 general elections which have already been delayed by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto at a rally party on December, 27, at Rawalpindi.

More than 800 people died in suicide attacks in 2007, considered Pakistani’s bloodiest ever year in terms of extremist violence.