By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Two back-to-back explosions outside the election offices of two candidates in Balochistan, Pakistan’s restive southwestern province, killed at least 26 people and wounded dozens more on Wednesday, officials said.
The first blast occurred around noon in Pishin, a district near the border with Afghanistan, where Asfandyar Kakar was running for a seat in the National Assembly and two seats in the provincial assembly in the elections scheduled for Feb. 8.
Kakar was not present at his office when a motorcycle rigged with explosives detonated outside, killing 14 people and injuring 30, Jumma Dad Khan, the deputy commissioner of Pishin told reporters.
“Eight of our workers were martyred and more than 18 were injured in the explosion when the names of the polling agents were being finalized in the election office,” Kakar was quoted as saying by local media.
The second blast took place shortly after in Qila Saifullah, another district in Balochistan, where Maulana Abdul Wassay, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was contesting for a seat in the provincial assembly.
The explosion, which targeted Wassay’s office, killed 12 people and injured 17, said Abdul Rauf Achakzai, the information minister of Balochistan. He said Wassay escaped unhurt.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were condemned by the ceartaker government and other political leaders.
The Election Commission of Pakistan said it had taken notice of the blasts and summoned a report from the chief secretary and the police chief of Balochistan. It also issued directives to take action against those involved in such incidents.
The caretaker interior minister Gohar Ejaz condemned the blasts and said he shared the grief of the bereaved families and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“Inciteful elements want to create chaos before the general elections and stop the public from exercising their right to vote,” he said in a post on X, a social media platform.
Terming the attack an “extremely cowardly act”, Ejaz asserted that the government would “not let the evil intentions of the enemy succeed at any cost”.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and most sparsely populated province, has been plagued by a low-intensity insurgency for the past two decades The violence has intensified in the run-up to the elections. Last week, four people were killed and five injured in a blast that targeted a former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf ‘s rally in Sibi, another district in Balochistan.
Tariq Habib, the deputy medical superintendent at the Khanozai Hospital in Pishin, said 14 bodies and 30 injured were brought to the hospital after the first blast on Wednesday. He said nine critically wounded people were being shifted to Quetta.
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