Bombings mar election build-up
Supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf headed by Pakistan’s cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, rally at the mausoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan in Karachi, Pakistan yesterday.
Pakistan is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on May 11, the first transition between democratically elected governments in a country that has experienced three military coups and constant political instability since its creation in 1947. Yet the build-up to the election was again marred by violence yesterday when five people were killed and more than 30 others injured when a bomb targeting a candidate from an Islamist party exploded in north-west Pakistan. The attack in Hangu town was the second in as many days targeting members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party. A bomb killed 25 people in the Kurram tribal region on Monday.