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Pakistanis mourn after election rally bombing kills 128
QUETTA, Pakistan, July 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Mourners gathered Saturday to
bury their dead in southwest Pakistan after a blast killed 128 people at a
political rally in one of the country’s deadliest attacks, underscoring
ongoing security challenges following years of dramatic improvements.
The Islamic State-claimed suicide attack in the town of Mastung, near the
Balochistan provincial capital Quetta, was the latest in a series of bombings
targeting campaign events in the last week, sparking fears of more violence
ahead of nationwide polls on July 25.
Hospitals in the area have been placed under “emergency” management after
being overwhelmed yesterday, with around 150 also injured in the blast —
many of them still in critical condition after suffering head trauma.
“We have imposed emergency in the hospitals and cancelled the vacations of
the doctors and paramedics,” Balochistan home minister Agha Umar Bungalzai
told AFP.
The provincial home secretary Haider Shako added that extra security forces
had been deployed in “sensitive areas” and warned politicians to remain
“vigilant”.
Among the dead was Siraj Raisani, who was running for a provincial seat
with the newly-formed local Balochistan Awami Party (BAP).
The BAP suspended campaign-related events on Saturday and has called for
its supporters to observe three days of mourning.
The attack was the deadliest since Taliban militants assaulted a school in
the northwestern city of Peshawar in 2014, killing over 150 people, mostly
children, and one of the deadliest in Pakistan’s long struggle with
militancy.
The explosion in Mastung came hours after four people were killed and 39
injured when a bomb hidden inside a motorcycle detonated close to another
politician’s convoy in Bannu, near the border with Afghanistan.
The politician — Akram Khan Durrani, a candidate of the Muttahida Majlis-
e-Amal (MMA) party — survived.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for that attack.
And on Tuesday, a bomb claimed by the Pakistani Taliban targeted a rally by
the Awami National Party (ANP) in the city of Peshawar. Local ANP leader
Haroon Bilour was among the 22 killed.
Following the attacks, analysts called for the country’s armed forces to
focus on security challenges rather than politics, in the wake of myriad
allegations that the military was meddling in the country’s upcoming polls.
“It has never been more true that Pakistan’s security establishment needs
to focus on security, not politics,” tweeted analyst Mosharraf Zaidi.
In an editorial in the English daily Dawn, the newspaper called for
authorities to “not only beef up security but also mobilise the entire
intelligence apparatus to do the job they are actually meant to, ie
preventing attacks”.
The bombings come at a moment of increasing political turmoil in Pakistan
as former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was arrested after arriving in the
eastern city of Lahore late Friday, as he aims to energise his embattled
party’s base — injecting fresh uncertainty into the country days ahead of
the polls.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1328 hrs