Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Sardar Ikramullah Gandapur was martyred as a suicide bomber targetted his vehiclen DI Khan's Tehsil Kalachi on Sunday.

The PTI candidate was said to be leaving his home for an election meeting when his jeep was targetted. He was among four injured in the attack and succumbed to his wounds at the hospital.

Gandapur was first taken to District Headquarters Hospital but was then shifted to the CMH operation theatre owing to his injuries.

The DPO added, "Ikramullah's guard and his driver have also been injured in the attack"

The former agriculture minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is contesting polls from PK-99, Kalachi.

The attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa follows a spate of bombings at political rallies before the election, the most devastating of which was a suicide attack this month that killed 149 people.

Sunday’s attack targeted the vehicle of Ikramullah Gandapur, a candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or Pakistan Justice Movement, for the provisional legislative assembly in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, two police officials told Reuters.

“Ikramullah Gandapur has been killed and we are conducting a post-mortem,” said police official Zahoor Afridi.

Video images from the scene showed three bleeding and unconscious passengers inside a badly damaged black sports utility vehicle.

In 2013, Gandapur’s brother, Israrullah, who was then the provincial law minister, was killed in a suicide attack on his home.

As political parties step up campaigning, attacks across Pakistan have stoked fears of more violence in a country of 208 million where political rallies can draw tens of thousands of spectators.

There are two main contenders among the dozens of parties in the election fray: PTI and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which aims to win a second term despite the jailing of its founder, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, for graft.