ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: The vehicle of Pakistan People’s Party candidate from NA-49 was attacked by some unidentified gunmen here on Sunday evening, police sources told Dawn.

However, the PPP candidate, Nayyar Bukhari, was not travelling in the car which was being driven by his driver Adnan when it came under fire.

The incident occurred near F-9 Park at around 8:30pm when Mr Bukhari’s driver was going towards F-8 from Sector F-11, the sources said.

Three unidentified people riding a silver sports utility vehicle pulled up and opened fire on the driver while overtaking Mr Bukhari’s car. The bullet was fired from the side of driver, who had pulled down the pane, and it exited shattering the glass on the other side.

A message was immediately aired to the city police to trace the attackers but till filing of this report there was no clue to them.

When contacted, Mr Bukhari said he cannot say whether the attackers had wanted to target him or not.

Earlier, Mr Bukhari and another PPP candidate from NA-48, Dr Israr Shah, had received death threats for participating in the upcoming general elections.

The caller had asked the two PPP candidates to pay a ransom of Rs2.5 million and withdraw from the election race.

In this regard, the police arrested five persons including an independent candidate from NA-48 on the charge of threatening the PPP nominees.

The police said two of the accused were caught red-handed while taking the ransom money from the supporters of Dr Shah. They disclosed the name of the independent candidate during interrogations.

The candidate was sent to Adiala jail on judicial remand, while the two accused are still in police custody for further investigations.