Ahead of the upcoming elections on February 8, a blast occurred near Pakistan's Election Commission office in Karachi on Friday. According to the local media reports, the incident occurred in the city's Saddar area and no casualties were reported so far.
According to reports, explosive materials were discovered in a shopping bag near the poll panel office in the city. Meanwhile, the Karachi Police stated that a bomb disposal squad was called at the site of the incident. The details regarding the nature of the explosion and its intended target are yet to be ascertained.
Balochistan province rattled by bombing
Earlier on Thursday, the country’s restive Balochistan province was rattled with at least 10 bomb and grenade attacks on Thursday, resulting in the death of one person. Several police stations and deputy commissioners’ offices were targeted in the attacks in which six persons, including a police officer and a jail warden, were injured, the Dawn newspaper reported.
A bomb, placed along a footpath on the China-Pakistan Economic Cooperation (CPEC) road in the Spinny area of Quetta, went off, killing a passerby, according to Quetta SSP (operations) Jawad Tariq.
The intensity of the blast rocked several areas of the provincial capital, according to officials. The police cordoned off the area and shifted the body to Civil Hospital. Hospital officials said the victim’s body was mutilated due to his proximity to the bomb at the time of the blast. The deceased was identified as an 84-year-old man.
Pakistan reels under violence ahead of polls
With just a week left for the elections, the country is facing a rising threat of attacks by militant outfits, especially in the two provinces bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan is reeling from back-to-back incidents of violence which resulted in multiple deaths, especially at political parties’ rallies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which are generally the most affected by the menace of terrorism.
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