People gather to survey the damage in a mosque following a bomb explosion in Karachi yesterday.
KARACHI: Three bomb explosions killed three people including a young girl in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi yesterday, police and hospital officials said, in the latest violence ahead of polls next month.
The blasts, two of which targeted secular political parties and another close to a Shia mosque, came a day after a car bomb at a political meeting in the same city killed at least 10 people and another bomb blast destroyed an election office in a tribal region near the Afghan border.
“The first bomb, which was planted near the office of the MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement) in Qasba Colony area killed one person and wounded 24 others,” local police official Zahid Hussain said.
He said the MQM office was the target but it was not open at the time of the explosion, adding that in the second attack a hand grenade was hurled near a Shia mosque, injuring 10 people.
In the third blast, which took place during a campaign meeting of a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate in Lyari neighbourhood, two people including a seven-year-old girl were killed and 15 were wounded, police official Muhammad Azim said.
He said that the bomb had been planted on a motorbike.
Police surgeon Aslam Pechuho also confirmed the toll from the three attacks.
No deaths were reported following the explosion which took place late on Friday in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal region, also known as a strong bastion of Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants.
“A time device, which was planted near the office of Aqal Khan, an independent candidate contesting the May 11 polls, went off but did not cause any loss of life because it was late in the night,” a local security official yesterday.
The blast however destroyed Khan’s election office and a few near by shops.
Another official, who confirmed the bombing, said nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the incident.
The May 11 polls are due to mark the first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has served a full, five-year term in a country that has been ruled by generals for half its life.
But a wave of attacks and threats against politicians and election workers have marred the run-up to the polls.
At least 36 people have been killed by bombers and gunmen since April 11 in different parts of the country including Karachi and Peshawar, according to an AFP tally.
The Taliban have directly threatened the three main parties in the outgoing government, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the ANP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which are often described as secular.
As a result of the threats, there have been few large-scale political rallies leading to a lacklustre campaign for the elections.
Across the country, but particularly in northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, these parties are abstaining from show-of-strength rallies and big public meetings due to threats of suicide attacks, bomb and rocket attacks.
Over the last few months, the nationalist ANP has been on top of the hit list of militants, followed by the PPP and the MQM.
Although several attacks have been carried out in Baluchistan and Sindh, ANP candidates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) remain the prime target of militants.
Following a formal letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan by the ANP, extraordinary security arrangements have been made for the party’s leaders and candidates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Significantly, the attacks have not cowed down the ANP, which has changed its election slogan to ‘Watan ya kafan’ (the country or a coffin), a message designed to convey that ANP leaders and candidates intend to either win this war or die trying.
Meanwhile, political analysts are upset by the fractured response of political parties to such attacks.
“The silence of other parties over these attacks is condemnable because the loss of a political party is damage to a democratic culture,” says Dr Hussain Shaheed Sohrawardi, professor of International Relations at the University of Peshawar.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan said in a statement yesterday that voting for elections would be held across the country without any interval from 8am to 5pm on May 11.
Agencies
