Islamabad:
A car bomb went off outside the home of a senior PML-N leader in Pakistan's Punjab province on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people and injuring 35 others, including relatives of the politician.
Officials said the attack targeted the home of veteran PML-N leader Zulfiqar Khosa near a market in Dera Ghazi Khan town.
The state-run Punjab Emergency Service said 15 people were killed and 35 others injured.
"Apparently the explosives were loaded in a car (which) hit the gate of my residence in Dera Ghazi Khan," Khosa, who was in a village near Islamabad at the time of the attack, told reporters.
He said a mosque and several shops near his home were destroyed by the blast and people were believed to be buried in the rubble.
Zulfiqar's son Dost Muhammad Khosa, a minister in the provincial government of Punjab, said two of his cousins were injured in the attack.
Dost Muhammad described the bombing as a "direct attack on his family". Zulfiqar said the attack had come "out of the blue" as he had not received threats from anyone.
The blast was the latest in a series of suicide attacks and bombings that have killed more than 500 people in Pakistan since October. However, it was the first attack targeting a senior leader of the opposition PML-N.
The attacks have been blamed on the Taliban, who are retaliating against a military operation targetting them in the country's northwest.
In the past, Dera Ghazi Khan has witnessed sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia groups.