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Regional Assembly Candidate Among 33 Killed in Pakistan Blasts

by Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD --

   Police in Pakistan say a candidate for a provincial assembly seat was
   among at least 33 people killed Friday in two bomb blasts near campaign
   rallies during the lead-up to July 25 national elections.

   The violence has fueled security concerns ahead of the polls for the
   national assembly and four provincial legislatures.

   Witnesses said Siraj Raisani was killed when a powerful bomb ripped
   across the stage while he attended a street-corner meeting of his
   supporters in Mustung district in southwestern Baluchistan province.

   The explosion killed at least 20 people and injured more than 40
   others. Raisani was a member of a regional political party.

   Witnesses said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, but
   police did not immediately confirm those accounts.

   The blast occurred just hours after a candidate for the national
   legislature, Akram Durrani, survived an assassination attempt during an
   election rally in his native northwestern city of Bannu.

   Police and witnesses said Durrani was traveling in a convoy when a
   remote-controlled bomb planted in a parked motorcycle exploded near his
   vehicle. That attack killed four people and injured nearly 40 others,
   but Durrani escaped unhurt. The politician is a central leader of a
   main religious party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F).

   There were no immediate claims of responsibility for Friday's bombings.

   The violence came three days after a suicide blast killed 21 people at
   an election rally in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhaw
   province, where Bannu is situated.

   Haroon Bilour, a senior secular politician and candidate for a
   provincial assembly seat, was among those killed in Tuesday's bombing.
   More than 16 people were wounded.

   The outlawed Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the Peshawar
   attack, condemning Bilour and his predominantly secular Awami National
   Party as "enemies of Islam."