Pakistan: Several killed as blast hits PTI rally in Quetta

As Pakistan gets ready for next week’s elections, officials said that at least four people were killed in a bombing that occurred close to a political rally on Tuesday. A bomb placed on a motorcycle detonated during a rally in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, according to the police. The rally was in support of Imran Khan’s imprisoned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. “The PTI rally was passing by there but it is not clear whether the rally was a target or not,” senior police official Farhan Zahid was quoted as saying by news agency AFP. In a statement, PTI said that three of its activists were among the dead at the rally—a convoy of motorbikes and cars parading through the city to curry support for a candidate ahead of the national elections scheduled for February 8—and that Pakistan’s electoral commission was looking into the incident. The attack came just hours after PTI founder Khan was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of having leaked classified state documents. Khan and PTI claim they are living through an unprecedented crackdown meant to prevent their return to power through the poll on February 8. After being removed from office in 2022, the 71-year-old former cricket hero in Pakistan began a campaign of resistance against the country’s military rulers, claiming they were plotting to topple him as prime minister. Since then, PTI has been mostly driven from the public eye, and Khan has been buried behind a mountain of court suits and prohibited from running for government. Pakistan has also been experiencing security issues as a result of a sharp rise in terrorist strikes since the Taliban retook control of neighboring Afghanistan. Over 1,500 civilians, security personnel, and terrorists lost their lives last year, marking a six-year peak in losses, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.