BLAST MARS PAKISTAN POLLS
Suicide bombing on election day kills at least 31
PAKISTANIS voted yesterday in elections that could propel former World Cup cricket hero Imran Khan to power, after a campaign marred by military interference and insurgent violence that culminated with an election day suicide blast killing at least 31.
The vote is a rare democratic transition in the populous and poor nuclear-armed Muslim country, which has been ruled by the powerful military for roughly half its history.
But it has also been dubbed Pakistan’s “dirtiest election” due to widespread accusations of pre-poll rigging by the armed forces who are believed to favour Imran.
Polling day violence struck when dozens of people were killed in the suicide bombing, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, in the southwestern city of Quetta.
It was the second major attack by IS this month in Balochistan province, after an earlier blast killed 153 people in Pakistan’s deadliest ever suicide attack.
Hashim Ghilza, a local administration official, said the bomber attempted to enter the polling station.
“When police tried to stop him, he blew himself up,” he said.
The blast left a scene of chaos all too familiar to residents of Quetta.
Debris, bloodstains and charred vehicles littered the road outside the polling station as blood-spattered dead and injured were rushed to hospital accompanied by distraught loved ones.
The contest has largely become a two-horse race between Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shahbaz is leading its campaign.
Up to 800,000 police and troops have been stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country, with concerns for security after a string of attacks targeting political events in the final weeks of the campaign killed more than 180 people, including three candidates.
An earlier attack in Balochistan yesterday left one policeman dead and three wounded when a hand grenade was thrown at a polling station in the village of Koshk.