16 dead in blasts as Pakistanis go to the polls

KABUL): Pakistanis are casting their votes in the parliamentary elections amid tight security arrangements, as a 16 more people were killed and 70 others injured in bomb attacks on Saturday.   

At least 11 people were killed and 50 others wounded in explosion in the populous port city of Karachi, DawnNews reported. The bombing happened close to a polling station in Quaidabad area.

An Awami National Party candidate seeking election to the Sindh Assembly was the target of the blast that damaged windowpanes of several buildings and destroyed eight shops.

But Amanullah Mehsud remained unharmed. A number of the injured are said to be in critical condition, the private TV channel said.

Three were killed and eight others injured during election-related violence between two rival groups in the Qila Abdullah/Chaman constituency of southwestern Balochistan province.

Over 600,000 security personnel have fanned out across the country, where 50 percent of the estimated 70,000 polling stations have been declared sensitive.

In the northwestern city of Peshawar, a blast near a school, which was designated as a polling station, injured 12 people. Rescue and security forces rushed to the site on Charsadda road. Elsewhere in the city, a blast was reported near a mosque on Kohat road.

Elsewhere in the northwest, polling had to be suspended after a firing incident near a polling station in the Bari Chum area of Mardan district.

As polling got under way, President Asif Ali Zardari, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Chief of Army Staff cast their votes.  

PAN Monitor/mud

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