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A man wounded in the bombing of an election rally in Quetta hospital on July 13, 2018. The bombing in Baluchistan (south-west Pakistan) killed 128 people, according to a recent report. balance sheet. / AFP
Pakistan was shocked on Saturday after a bloody suicide bombing that killed 128 people in Baluchistan and coincided with the arrest of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for corruption, shaking up an election campaign already tense for the legislative elections of July 25.
"Carnage in Mastung", headlined the daily Express Tribune in a Saturday. Another newspaper, The News, evoked a "massacre".
The relatives of the victims of the attack, the deadliest in Pakistan since the attack on a school in Peshawar that killed more than 150 people in December 2014, carried the victims in the city of Mastung on Saturday. , about forty kilometers from the capital of the Balochian capital Quetta, in the south-west of the country.
The country will observe Sunday a day of mourning, said Pakistani interim Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk, whose government is responsible for preparing the vote.
The attack, which has been claimed by the Islamic State Jihadist group , is the third to hit an election meeting this week in Pakistan. In total, the violence killed at least 150 people in four days, including two candidates for the elections.
These events resurrect the specter of instability and violence in a country where the security situation has improved significantly in recent years and while the election campaign has so far been relatively spared by the violence, especially compared to the previous one in 2013.
Following the attacks, some voices were raised Saturday to remind the armed forces of their obligations.
"It has never been so true that Pakistani military establishment must focus on security, not on politics, "analyst Mosharraf Zaidi tweeted. The army is suspected of interfering in Pakistan's political life and putting pressure on the media, which it denies.
Attacks "prove that the required work was not done Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party party, was one of the main contenders in the elections. "These incidents will continue to occur" until terrorism is eliminated, he warned.
For analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai, there is a "new wave of terrorism" that risks continue until elections and beyond. "It was very planned," and even "coordinated between different insurgent groups," he says.
As for the army, it seems to have "distracted" and is now "criticized for taking "
The spokesman of the army, General Asif Ghafoor, for his part condemned the attack and assured that" the attempts of forces hostile to derail important democratic activities will not succeed. "
– Vivid Tensions –
In Baluchistan, the poorest and most unstable of Pakistan's provinces, additional forces were deployed in" sensitive areas " According to the provincial secretary for home affairs, Haider Shako
the hospitals were placed in management of http://www.la-croix.com/ "emergency" after having welcomed the day before more than 150 wounded, has said Baluchistan's Interior Minister Agha Umar Bungalzai
Supporters of former Prime Minister Pakistani Minister Nawaz Sharif head for the airport to wait for him on his return from London, Lahore on July 13, 2018 / AFP
"I heard yells. I tried to get up and saw people trying to flee to the gate. They stumbled on dead bodies, "told a survivor of the tragedy, Rustam Raisani, who was treated in one of them.
The attack was aimed at a political rally by Mir Siraj Raisani, candidate to a seat of deputy, which is among the victims.
The evacuation of the dead and wounded had to be done largely in the dark for lack of electricity, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. The next day, the large tent that housed the meeting was nothing more than a heap of bloodstained patches.
The Mastung attack coincided with the arrest of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam for corruption in Lahore Friday night after a return to high-profile country
Although he can not run for office, his ten-year years in prison last week and his incarceration are also fueling strong political tensions
His clan calls them "political" and Mr. Sharif accuses the powerful Pakistani army of conspiring against him and interfering in political life, which he denies.
"I know that (…) I will be taken directly to prison, "said Sharif in a video released on Friday before his arrest.
" I did this for you (…) Walk with me, join your hands to mine and change the destination of the country, "said Sharif, who remains extremely influential in the country after being dismissed in July 2017 by the Supreme Court in the same case of corruption.
According to analysts, this return seems essentially guided by the desire to save his party, the PML-N, whose electoral campaign flounders and whose lead in the polls has melted these last time against his main rival, the PTI, directed by former cricket champion Imran Khan
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