A worker prints electoral posters of the Pakistan Muslim League – Functional (PML-F), in a press room in Hyderabad. Pakistan’s May 11 elections will mark the first-ever transition from one elected civilian government to another in the country’s 65-year history.
Agencies/Islamabad
Militants blew up the election office of an independent candidate in northwest Pakistan yesterday, adding to security fears ahead of historic national polls next month.
No one was hurt in the bombing in Miranshah, which is the main town in North Waziristan and a known hub of Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants, bordering Afghanistan.
But the bombing is likely to fuel concerns that violence will mar the national and regional elections on May 11, which will mark the country’s first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has served a full term in office.
“Militants blew up the election office of Kamran Khan with explosive at around 5am,” an intelligence official in Miranshah told AFP, adding that all three rooms of the office were destroyed.
Residents in Miranshah confirmed the bombing and told AFP that an adjacent mosque was also damaged in the blast.
Khan is a former legislator from North Waziristan who supported the outgoing government led by the Pakistan People’s Party, the official said. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
But umbrella Taliban faction Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has made death threats against the three main secular parties that made up the outgoing government and who backed army operations against the Islamist militants.
On Thursday, militants shot dead a candidate for outgoing coalition partner the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the first to die in the election campaign, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
As many as 41 polling stations in Pakistani federal capital Islamabad have been declared sensitive because of the prevailing security concerns and frictions among the contesting political parties.
According to a senior official in the Ministry of Interior yesterday, there are 550 polling stations in Islamabad’s NA-48 and NA-49.
“We have 262 polling stations in the urban Islamabad within the jurisdiction of the Capital Development Authority and 288 in the rural area that comes under the limits of the capital territory administration,” the official said.
He said 38 of the polling stations in NA-49 had been placed in the A category (highly sensitive).
“Only three polling stations in NA-48 are of a critical nature while the rest are in the C (normal) category.”
An official of the police special branch said the polling stations declared sensitive by the Ministry of Interior in NA-49 were located close to Rawat, Sohan, Sihala and Koral. “We had seen scuffles and fights during the 2008 elections in these polling stations,” said the official.
The Ministry of Interior official added that over 9,500 police personnel would be deployed in the capital on May 11. “We have made arrangements for the elections and 9,500 police officers will perform duty at the 550 polling stations,” said the official.
The Rangers would be on a standby and can be called in any time if there was a need. Another official said Rangers would remain on duty close on the elections day.
