Bomb blasts targeting candidates’ offices killed at least two dozen people a day before Pakistan’s national elections.
Quetta, Pakistan — A pair of bombings at the election offices of a political party and an independent candidate in southwest Pakistan killed at least 24 people and wounded more than two dozen others, officials said Wednesday. The blasts came one day before parliamentary elections are to be held across the country.
The first attack happened in Pashin, a district in Baluchistan province, said Jan Achakzai, the spokesperson for the provincial government. Officials said at least 14 people were killed in the attack and the wounded are being transported to a nearby hospital. Police said some of them were listed in critical condition.
Later Wednesday, another bombing at the election office of politician Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema Islam party in Qilla Saifullah town of Baluchistan killed at least 10 people, Acahkzai and local authorities said. CBS News’ Sami Yousafzai said the JUI party is seen as close to the Afghan Taliban, which retook power in the neighboring country in August 2021.
JUI member Abdullah Khan Kakar told CBS News in a phone interview that he’d narrowly avoided the explosion in Qilla Saifullah, having left the office just minutes before the blast. He said a close friend and fellow party member was among those killed when the bomb went off just a couple hundred yards from where he was standing.
« I ran back towards the dust and smoke, » he said. « I found my best friend unconscious, covered in blood. On the way to the hospital, he died. »
« While my heart is bleeding – I lost my best friend and other party members – I will not surrender to the terrorists, and will respond by going and casting my vote tomorrow, God willing. » Attack comes despite tight election security
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, which came despite the deployment of tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces across Pakistan to ensure peace following a recent surge in militant attacks in the country, especially in Baluchistan.
