Suicide bomber kills 128 in attack on
Pakistani election rally
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[July 14, 2018]
By Gul Yousafzai
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide
bomber killed 128 people at an election rally in southwestern Pakistan
in the second election-related attack on Friday, officials said, amid
growing tensions over ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif's return ahead
of the July 25 vote.
The bombing was the most deadly attack in Pakistan in over three years
and is the third incident of election-related violence this week.
It came as Pakistan's caretaker government launched a crackdown on
political gatherings. Sharif, who was ousted by the Supreme Court last
year and convicted in absentia of corruption a week ago, arrived in the
country to rally his party ahead of the general elections.
Baluchistan Home Minister Agha Omer Bangulzai told Reuters that the
death toll in the attack had risen to 128 people, with over 150 wounded.
Senior police official Qaim Lashari had earlier said that more than 1000
people were in attendance at the rally in the town of Mastung in the
violence-plagued province of Baluchistan.
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Islamist militants linked to the Taliban, al Qaeda and Islamic State
have been operating in the province, which borders Iran as well as
Afghanistan. It also has an indigenous ethnic Baluch insurgency fighting
the central government.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the group's AMAQ
news agency said. The group provided no further detail or evidence for
its claim.
In February 2017, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide
bombing at a shrine in southern Pakistan, killing 83 people and wounding
over 150.
Among those killed in Friday's attack was Baluchistan provincial
assembly candidate Siraj Raisani, whose brother Nawab Aslam Raisani had
served as the provincial chief minister from 2008 to 2013.
"My brother Siraj Raisani has been martyred," said Haji Lashkari
Raisani, another brother who is also contesting a national assembly seat
from Baluchistan.
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ATTACKS
Raisani is the second electoral candidate to be killed in
pre-election violence this week.
Police had earlier said that the attack targeted Raisani's convoy
but later changed their statement as video footage of a large tent
showing damage from the blast was circulated.
Earlier in the day, a bomb blast killed four people in the northern
town of Bannu when it struck the campaign convoy of Akram Khan
Durrani, an ally of Sharif's party from the religious Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal party (MMA).
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a rally by an anti-Taliban
political party in the northern city of Peshawar on Tuesday, the
capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province killing 20 people including
Haroon Bilour who was hoping to win a provincial assembly seat in
July.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Bilour was part of the predominantly secular, ethnic Pashtun
nationalist Awami National Party, which has long competed with
Islamist parties for votes in Pakistan’s volatile Pashtun lands,
along the border with Afghanistan.
His father, senior ANP leader Bashir Bilour, was killed in a suicide
bombing in late 2012, in the run-up to Pakistan’s last election.
(Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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