* Blast at JUI-F election rally kills 16, wounds 36 in Kurram
* NP candidate escapes grenade attack in Turbat
* PPP candidate’s election office attacked in Charsadda
PESHAWAR: Bomb blasts and rocket attacks targeting election candidates and polling booths continued to mar the pre-election environment on Monday.
At least sixteen people were killed and 36 others, including a candidate of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Maulana Ainuddin, were injured in a bomb explosion at an election meeting in Upper Kurram tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, officials said. Reuters said that 36 people were killed in the blast.
The attack is the first of its kind targeting the pro-Taliban party of Maulana Fazlur Rehman. “The meeting in remote Sewak area was about to be over when the bomb went off, which appears was attached with a time device,” security officials in the region were quoted as saying. Emergency was declared in Parachinar and Sadda hospitals, according to local administration. Doctors at Sadda hospital confirmed to Hangu-based journalists that 16 persons were reported dead and 36 others injured. Critically wounded people were being transported to a hospital in Hangu city where surgical treatment is offered by the international humanitarian organisation MSF.
It was a joint meeting of two candidates of JUI-F from NA-37 (Upper Kurram) and NA-39 (Central Kurram). Maulana Ainuddin, candidate for NA-37, received minor injuries while Muneer Orakzai, JUI-F candidate for NA-38, escaped unhurt. Official sources said that it was unclear who the target was. However, Congress-funded Deewa Radio in Washington said the Taliban took responsibility, saying they were aiming for Muneer Orakzai, who extended support to the previous coalition government of PPP, ANP and MQM – the three parties the terror group publicly named to attack. Muneer Orakzai joined the JUI-F just before the announcement of elections 2013 schedule.
Meanwhile, attacks on high profile candidates and polling stations continued unabated in various districts of Balochistan on Monday. As many as three persons were injured when the cavalcade of Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, the president of National Party (NP), was attacked by unidentified persons in Turbat. Turbat police official Siraj Ahmed said that the incident occurred at a time when Dr Abdul Malik Baloch along with Dr Yaseen Baloch was returning from the electoral procession. He said that some unidentified persons attacked the convoy with a hand grenade. However, Dr. Abdul Malik and his party workers narrowly escaped the attack, whereas three pedestrians were injured in retaliatory fire.
Talking to Daily Times, National Party spokesman Jan Buledi strongly condemned the attack. The National Party workers staged a protest demonstration in front of Quetta Press Club following the attack. Meanwhile, four schools and a dispensary were blown up in blasts and rocket attacks in Barkhan and Mastung districts on Monday. The schools were designated as polling stations. According to the Balochistan levies sources, a school building was which was to be used as a polling station was destroyed in a rocket attack, however no loss of life was reported.
Separately, unidentified armed men blew up three polling stations with explosives. In Nushki district unidentified armed men fired indiscriminately at a school designated as a polling station. There was no loss of life. In yet another incident, a driver of the election commission was injured in the firing by security forces in Sariab, Quetta, after he failed to heed a stop signal.
Militants targeted an election office of a PPP candidate in Charsadda on Monday. According to police, miscreants planted a bomb outside the election office of provincial assembly candidate from PK-22 Asadullah Amirzai in tehsil Shabqadar of Charsadda district. The blast partially damaged the election office but the candidate and party activists remained unhurt.
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