Pakistan: Explosions Near Candidates' Offices Kill Dozens

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Facts

  • Coming a day before Pakistan's elections, two explosions went off Wednesday in the Balochistan province near the offices of a candidate in the Pishin district, killing 14 people, and also at the office of the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) party, reportedly killing 12 and wounding at least 25.1
  • Deputy Commissioner of the Pishin district, Jumma Dad Mandokhail, said the blast there, which went off outside the office of independent candidate Asfandyar Kakar, came from explosive material being planted in a motorcycle parked in the area.2
  • Kakar, who wasn't present at the office when the explosions happened, said 'Eight of our workers were martyred.' It's unknown who was behind the bombings, though the Pakistani Taliban as well as Balochistan separatists have both recently carried out attacks.3
  • The JUI party, which is one of the hardline Islamist parties in the election, has had close ties to the Afghan Taliban and operates several traditional Islamic schools. Last year, the party was targeted by an Islamic State group suicide bomber, resulting in the deaths of 45 people.4
  • The attacks occurred after candidates held their final campaign events, after which the country underwent a quiet period mandated by election regulators on the day before an election. It's also part of a recent surge in attacks as well as rising tensions regarding the arrest of former Prime Minister and current candidate Imran Khan.3
  • The recent violence has included nine grenade attacks against election offices in Makran and Quetta yesterday. Last week, a firefight resulted in the deaths of 24 terrorists in Balochistan; an independent candidate was shot dead in the Bajaur district; ten more bomb attacks were launched in Balochistan, killing one man; and ten officers were killed during an attack on a police station in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.2

Sources: 1Reuters.com, 2DAWN.COM, 3The Times of India and 4Forbes.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Current local government reports have indicated that the Islamic State group was responsible for the motorcycle bombing, which is unsurprising given the terror group's recent attacks alongside those from Balochistan separatists and the Pakistani Taliban. As Pakistanis are still set to go to the polls, the government has rightly closed the borders to both Afghanistan and Iran to strengthen security ahead of the election. These terrorists must face a swift response for the carnage they caused in recent weeks.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Intercept. The recent turmoil in Pakistan must be scrutinized heavily. Regarding terror attacks, multiple members of Imran Khan's PTI party have been the targets of these attacks, despite the groups alleged to have committed them having no history of targeting the PTI. Secondly, the military-run Election Commission has conveniently announced potential issues with the voting database ahead of the election. All of this, on top of the obvious arrest of the most popular Prime Minister candidate, shows the government is doing everything it can to keep Khan out of office.

Predictions