QUETTA – At least 149 people, including an election candidate, were killed while more than 120 others injured in a suicide bombing in the southern Pakistani province of Balochistan.
Security sources said the explosion occurred at an election meeting of Nawabzada Siraj Raisani in Darengarh area of Mastung.
Raisani, who was a candidate of the recently-formed Balochistan Awami Party, was killed in the suicide attack. He was younger brother of Nawab Aslam Raisani, former chief minister of Balochistan.
The injured have been shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Mastung and Quetta Civil Hospital for medical treatment. The critically injured were further shifted to CMH Quetta.
This was the third terrorist attack on a candidate ahead of general polls. Earlier on Friday, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s leader Akram Khan Durrani’s convoy was attacked in Bannu, resulting in the death of four people and injuries to around a dozen others. Durrani, who is contesting from NA-35 (Bannu), was returning from an election rally when his convoy was hit.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/bomb-blast-hits-jui-f-candidate-akram-durranis-convoy-in-bannu/
On July 10, a suicide blast had killed Awami National Party (ANP) leader Haroon Bilour and 19 others in Peshawar’s Yaktoot area. The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which had also claimed responsibility for 2012 attack that killed Haroon’s father, Bashir Bilour.
On July 7, at least seven people, including a candidate of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), were injured when a convoy came under a bomb attack in Bannu.
Earlier this month, an attack on a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate’s office in North Waziristan’s Razmak tehsil had injured 10.
