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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The death toll in a suicide bombing that targeted an election campaign in southwestern Pakistan rose to 128 on Saturday, the deadliest terror attack in the country this year.
The attack, which took place on Friday in the restive province of Baluchistan, with a view to the violence of the national elections scheduled for July 25.
Pakistan is preparing for its second democratic transition after military rule
The government announced that it was going to be deadly, and that it was going to be deadly. flags at half-staff in all government buildings in Baluchistan. In the badault, Nawabzada Mir Siraj Khan Raisani, 55, a candidate for the provincial badembly, had just arrived at a meeting in the town of Mastung when suicide bombing detonated his explosive
Mr. Raisani, who was among those killed, was a candidate of the Baluchistan Awami Party, a Pakistani military.
The explosion ripped through the meeting and left a trail of devastation and destruction. The victims were ferried to the provincial capital, Quetta, because the health facilities in Mastung were unable to cope with the number of the wounded and the extent of their injuries.
Mastung has a history of deadly sectarian and militant violence. Mr. Raisani escaped A bombing in the district in 2011, when an explosion ripped through a prize ceremony after a soccer match. He was unhurt, but his teenage son and 24 other people were killed.
Last year, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, a senior politician, escaped an badbadination attempt in Mastung when his convoy was targeted in an explosion. Mr. Haideri survived with injuries, but at least 25 other people were killed in the attack by the Islamic State. In the past, extremist Sunni groups in the district have targeted Shiites pilgrims making their way to Iran.
Muhammad Amir Rana, a security badyst who is the director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, said the
"It is an intelligence failure, but the attack was expected," Mr. Rana said. "Last year, at least four big terror attacks in Baluchistan are claimed by the Islamic State."
Mastung has a complex profile, he added. Several nonviolent sectarian groups are also active in the district, and it has a significant number of radical religious schools
Mr. Rana said that despite the increased attacks, he said, "The violence is currently limited to regions where the militants have been active and concentrated for a long time," he said. "Unless militant attacks move to the urban areas, especially big cities in Punjab Province, I do not think the elections would be affected."
Several candidates, however, have complained that their ability to be affected. recent attacks. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was elected by the authorities, party officials said on Saturday.
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