Pakistan Blast Kills Dozens Ahead Of Elections
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – Two bomb explosions have killed at least 22 people in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on the eve of general elections, officials say.
The election has been overshadowed by violence after a Pakistani court jailed Imran Khan and his wife for seven years after voiding their marriage, in the latest what critics view as a politically motivated sentence against the ex-prime minister.
The first blast killed 14 people in front of an independent candidate’s party office in Pishin district.
A second explosion left eight people dead in Qillah Saif Ullah district, about 150km (93 miles) away. Many others were injured in the two blasts, witnesses said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack in Pishin, a town about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the city of Quetta and 100 (62.5 miles) southeast of the Afghan border.
The provincial authorities told media that 25 people were also wounded.
Images on social media show cars and motorbikes blown apart by the force of the explosion. It reportedly took place outside the election office of a local independent candidate.
FEARS OF VIOLENCE
Wednesday’s blast heightened fears of more election violence as Imran Khan’s children said they had received threats over their safety if they went to Pakistan to meet their father in jail, Worthy News monitored.0
Last week, Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to 14 years in prison on corruption charges.
That ruling came just a day after another special court convicted the former leader of Pakistan of leaking state secrets and handed him a 10-year prison sentence.
Finally, on Saturday, a court ruled his marriage was conducted illegally and handed him and Bibi another seven-year term, trial observers said.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party says these hastily issued convictions are an attempt to discredit them on trumped-up charges.
With Khan continuing to ride high in favourability polls despite being jailed for the past six months and banned from holding political office, more bloodshed and uncertainty were expected in the mainly Muslim nation.
It also added to uncertainty among Christians who have Islamist attacks.
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