Suicide bombing at political rally kills 15 in Pakistan

A suicide bomb has killed 15 people at a political rally in Pakistan on a day of violence which saw two other deadly bombings and a total death toll of 26, The Telegraph reported.

An attacker blew himself up while supporters of a nationalist party were leaving a political rally near a stadium in Balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta on Tuesday evening.

At least 15 have been killed and 70 wounded in the explosion, where hundreds of members of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) had gathered, the party’s president Akhtar Mengal said.

The bomber detonated his explosives-laden jacket in the parking area around 15 minutes after the meeting ended, police officials said.

Survivors carried the wounded to safety while rescuers picked their way through twisted metal, pools of blood and scattered body parts to retrieve the victims.

Mr Mengal and other senior political leaders from opposition parties, including Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, were also present, but escaped unhurt.

Six vehicles, including their bulletproof cars, were damaged in the explosion.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the blast and called it a cowardly attack on innocent people.

“We will crush their nefarious designs,” Bugti said, adding that attackers would be hunted down and punished.

In a separate attack on Tuesday in Balochistan, five security personnel were killed near the border with Iran.

The Frontier Corps border guards died and three others were injured when their convoy was targeted by a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) in the Buleda area of Kech district, near the Pakistan-Iran border.

On the same day, six soldiers and six militants were killed during an assault on a paramilitary base in north-west Pakistan that began with a suicide bomber ramming the compound.

The suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into the boundary wall of the base in the town of Bannu early on Tuesday, causing an explosion that allowed other attackers to enter the compound, said Sajjad Khan, the regional police chief.

The ensuing exchange of fire lasted 12 hours, ending after the six attackers were killed, the official said.

The militant group Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan claimed responsibility for that attack.