UPDATES WITH ANOTHER EXPLOSION
By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – At least 10 people were killed and over 50 injured in two separate explosions targeting election rallies in southwest and northwest Pakistan on Friday, officials and local media reported.
A suspected suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden motorbike into a vehicle minutes after the end of an election rally in the remote Bannu district, bordering the restive North Waziristan tribal region, killing five people and injuring another 30.
Senior politician Akram Kham Durrani, a candidate of the five-party religious alliance Muttehida Majlis Amal (MMA), was an apparent target of the attack but escaped unscathed, local broadcaster ARY News reported.
A former chief minister of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province, Durrani is running against Imran Khan, a popular former cricket star, in Bannu.
Durrani told ARY News that he was not at the venue when the blast occurred.
This was the second attack on MMA candidates in Bannu in the last two weeks.
The bombing followed a suicide blast at an election rally earlier this week in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa’s capital, that killed 21 people, including a candidate.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the Peshawar attack.
– Blast in Balochistan
The second blast on Friday struck an election rally in remote Mastung district of mineral-rich Balochistan province.
Qaim Khan Lashari, deputy commissioner Mastung, told reporters that five people were killed, and 25 injured — many critically — in the blast.
The injured included a candidate from Mastung, Siraj Raisani, a brother of the former Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Aslam Raisani.
Raisani, who is in critical condition, has been shifted to a hospital in provincial capital Quetta, local broadcaster Express News reported.
Police were not sure about the nature of the explosion however some local channels quoting eyewitnesses termed the incident “act of a suicide bomber”.
Pakistan’s elections are scheduled for July 25.
