National Post (National Edition)
Election violence in Pakistan kills 70
LAHORE, PAKISTAN •The deadliest attack in Pakistan’s troubled election campaign killed 70 people, including a candidate, in southwestern Baluchistan province on Friday ahead of the arrest of disgraced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif upon his return to Pakistan.
Sharif returned late Friday from London along with his daughter Maryam to face a 10-year prison sentence on corruption charges, anti-corruption officials said. Maryam Sharif faces seven years in jail.
He was taken into custody to serve his sentence however he is expected to appeal and seek bail. It wasn’t clear when his appeal would be filed but he has until Monday.
In a horrific assault in the southwestern Baluchistan town of Mastung, Siraj Raisani a candidate in the provincial Parliament, died when a suicide bomber blew himself up amid scores of supporters who had gathered at a rally.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement carried on its Aamaq news agency.
The group gave no reason for the bombing that killed Raisani, who was running for the election on the Baluchistan Awami Party ticket.
Raisani is the brother of the former Baluchistan chief minister, Aslam Raisani. Caretaker Home Minister Agha Umar Bungalzai told The Associated Press another 120 people were wounded in Friday’s bombing.
It was the second electionrelated violence to occur on Friday.
Meanwhile, Sharif arrived in the eastern city of Lahore from London where he was visiting his ailing wife when a Pakistani court convicted him and his daughter of corruption.
Ahead of his return, police swept through Lahore, arresting scores of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party workers to prevent them from greeting him at the airport.
Underscoring the security threat, were Friday’s bombings that killed 74 people in the latest election related violence. The first bomb that killed four people exploded in the northwest near the election rally of a senior politician from an Islamist party who is running for parliament from the northwestern town of Bannu.
The explosion targeted candidate Akram Khan Durrani, who escaped unhurt, and wounded 20 people, said police chief Rashid Khan.
Durrani is running in the July 25 vote against popular former lawmaker Imran Khan. He is a candidate of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an election alliance of radical religious groups.
The attacks came days after a suicide bomber dispatched by the Pakistani Taliban killed secular politician Haroon Ahmed Bilour and 20 others at his rally in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Former lawmaker Imran Khansaid the people of Pakistan will not allow anything to prevent “historic” elections from taking place.