Pakistan in mourning as toll from election rally bomb rises to 128
The death toll from the suicide bomb blast at a political rally in the Pakistani province of Balochistan rose to 128 yesterday.
Hospitals in Mastung, in the south-western province, were placed under emergency management after being overwhelmed in the hours after Friday’s attack, with about 150 people also injured in the blast.
Many were in a critical condition after suffering head injuries.
“I could hear voices screaming,” survivor Rustam Raisani told AFP from his hospital bed. “I tried to get up and I saw people trying to run towards the gate. They were trampling over bodies.”
Balochistan Home Minister Agha Umar Bungalzai said: “We have imposed emergency management in the hospitals and cancelled the vacations of the doctors and paramedics.”
Provincial Home Secretary Haider Shako said that extra security forces had been sent to “sensitive areas” and warned politicians to remain vigilant.
A caretaker government has been installed before the July 25 election, and prime minister Nasirul Mulk declared that today would be a day of mourning.
The attack was by far the deadliest of blasts at campaign events this week, which have killed at least 154 people – including two local politicians, and underscored security challenges after years of optimism.
Analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai called the blasts a “wave of terror” that showed co-ordination between militant groups. He said that security forces could not protect every campaign event.
But Mr Yusufzai said that the forces had been sidetracked by taking sides and focusing on politics. He predicted the bloodshed would continue.
Violence has dropped significantly since the country’s deadliest militant attack – an assault on a school in the north-western city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 150 people, mostly children.
The military intensified operations against militants in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan after that attack and security improved dramatically.
But analysts have long warned that Pakistan is not getting to the root causes of extremism, and that militants can still carry out attacks such as the blast in Mastung.
“It has proved that the work that was required was not done,” the head of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said on television yesterday.
Lahore resident Shahzad Anwar yesterday said the attack was the result of the “failure of security institutions”.
“It’s wrong,” Mr Anwar said. “It should not happen. The security institutions should work on this.”