Twin Bombings At Pakistan Political Offices Kill At Least 26 A Day Before Voting Begins

The bombings came despite the deployment of tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces across Pakistan.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A pair of bombings at the election offices of a political party and an independent candidate in southwest Pakistan killed at least 26 people and wounded more than two dozen others, officials said Wednesday, the day before parliamentary elections are to be held.

The first attack hit the election office of Asfandyar Khan in Pashin, a district in Baluchistan province, said Jan Achakzai, the spokesperson for the provincial government. Officials said at least 15 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 elections office of politician Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema Islam party in Qilla Saifullah town of Baluchistan killed at least 11 people, Acahkzai and local authorities said.

JUI is one of the leading radical Islamist party and is known for backing the Afghan Taliban. JUI’s religious schools are spread across the country, especially in the northwest and Baluchistan bordering Afghanistan. Many of Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders studied at Islamic seminaries operated by JUI, yet Rehman and his party leaders in recent years have been attacked by the Islamic State group and other militants. Rehman and scores of candidates from his party are contesting the elections from various parts of Pakistan.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came a day before Pakistan holds parliamentary elections.