Sharif appeals for votes as Pakistan mourns

THE death toll in one of the most lethal terror attacks in Pakistan’s history increased to 130 people yesterday as senior politicians joined a national day of mourning.

Friday’s attack, at a political rally in south-western Balochistan province, was the latest in a series of blasts at election campaign events that have killed at least 156 people in the run-up to national polls on July 25.

The deadly attacks occurred just hours before Pakistan’s disgraced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan from London to face a 10-year jail sentence for corruption.

He and his daughter Maryam, who was sentenced to seven years, were taken to jail upon their return. Today, they are expected to appeal against their conviction.

Yesterday, Sharif released a message from his prison cell urging his supporters to rally voters to his Pakistan Muslim League party before the elections. Sharif ’s brother, Shahbaz, is now leading the party.

Friday’s death toll is surpassed by only two other attacks in Pakistan’s history. In 2007, a bomb attack in Karachi targeting former premier Benazir Bhutto killed 139 people, while an attack on a school in the north-western city of Peshawar in 2014 left more than 150 people dead, many of them children.