QUETTA: Four people were killed and five others injured on Tuesday in southwestern Pakistan’s Sibi city, as a rally organized by former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party passed through a busy road, an official confirmed.
Sibi deputy commissioner Khuda e Rahim told Arab News an explosives-laden motorcycle exploded as scores of PTI supporters, who were taking part in the election rally, passed through the city’s Jinnah Road.
“Four people have been killed in the attack and five injured, who were referred to District Headquarters Hospital Sibi,” Rahim said. “It is premature to say the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf’s rally was targeted, but police teams have commenced their investigation,” he added.
Sibi’s district health officer, Dr. Imran Baloch, said the hospital received four bodies after the explosion. Five people were injured who were in stable condition, Baloch said.
PTI’s provincial additional secretary-general of Balochistan, Alam Khan Kakar, demanded authorities hold a fair investigation and arrest those responsible for the blast. He said the blast had targeted the party’s candidate in Sibi, Sadam Khan Tareen.
“Unfortunately, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is not given a free ground for election activities across the country,” Kakar told Arab News.
“I request the Supreme Court to intervene against the countrywide crackdown against the PTI ahead of general elections,” he added.
The blast took place hours after a Pakistani court sentenced Khan and his deputy, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, to 10 years in prison on charges of leaking the contents of a secret diplomatic cable to unauthorized individuals.
Khan denies any wrongdoing and says that the cases against him are politically motivated to keep him away from elections.
Electioneering has gained momentum in Pakistan in recent weeks, with national polls scheduled to be held across the country on Feb. 8.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence, particularly in its western provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the weeks leading to national polls.
Two people were injured on Sunday evening in Mastung district in a grenade attack that targeted the National Party’s election office while another grenade and gun attack at the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) office in Turbat last week killed one police officer.
A spokesperson for the government said on Tuesday six militants had been killed in an operation launched by security forces against “coordinated attacks” while hospital officials reported five injured.
The attacks were claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), separatist militants, who stormed the small towns of Mach and Kolpur on Monday night with heavy weapons and rockets.
Gas-rich Balochistan province at the border with Afghanistan and Iran has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baloch nationalists for more than two decades. They initially wanted a share of provincial resources, but later demanded independence.
