Summary General Bajwa condemned Mastung blast.
RAWALPINDI (Dunya News) - Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa condemned Friday’s suicide bombing in Mastung that killed an election candidate among 85 others and left more than 100 injured.
COAS condemns heinous terrorist attk in Mashtung. Grieved on loss of precious lives. Pak lost a highly devoted & capable politician Siraj Raisani. Attempts of inimical forces to derail important democratic activity shall not succeed. United we all Pakistanis shall IA defeat them.
— Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) July 13, 2018
The blast in the town of Mastung, near the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta, came hours after another bomb killed at least four people at a campaign rally in Bannu in the country s northwest.
"Death toll has risen to 85," Balochistan health minister Faiz Kakar told AFP, adding that were more than 100 wounded. Earlier he had said 70 people were killed.
According to senior provincial official Saeed Jamali, the bomber detonated in the middle of a compound where a political meeting was taking place. Another senior official, Qaim Lashari, also confirmed it had been a suicide blast.
The explosion killed Siraj Raisani, who was running for a provincial seat with the newly formed Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), provincial home minister Agha Umar Bungalzai told AFP.
"Mir Siraj Raisani succumbed to wounds while he was being shifted to Quetta," he added. Raisani was the younger brother of former provincial chief minister Mir Aslam Raisani.
The explosion comes hours after four people were killed and 39 injured when a bomb hidden inside a motorcycle detonated near a politician s convoy in Bannu on Friday, near the Afghan border.
The earlier bomb was targeting the convoy of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) candidate Akram Khan Durrani, who survived the attack, police said.
On Tuesday, a bomb targeted a rally by the Awami National Party (ANP) in the city of Peshawar. Local ANP leader Haroon Bilour was among the 22 killed. Thousands flocked to his funeral the next day.
