Pakistan election meeting attack toll touches 149

The death toll in the suicide attack targeting an election meeting in Pakistan has increased to 149, while the number of injured stands at 186, an official said on Monday.

The attack on Friday, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) terror group, is one of the worst in recent years in the country and adds to a series of attacks perpetrated against electoral events and candidates for the upcoming elections on July 25.

"The death toll has reached 149 including nine minors and the injured are 186," Qaim Lashari, Deputy Commissioner of Mastung in Balochistan province, where the attack took place, told Efe news.

The attack took place when Siraj Raisani, a leader of the regional Balochistan Awami Party, was holding an electoral meeting in a market.

Raisani was seriously injured in the attack and died later in a hospital.

On Friday, another attack had targeted an election campaign in the city of Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, leaving four dead and another 19 injured.

On July 10, at least 20 people were killed and 60 were wounded in an attack on the regional Awami National Party election campaign in the same province.

According to South Asia Terrorism Portal, of late there has been a decline in violence in Pakistan, with 1,260 terror-related deaths in 2017, comprising 540 civilians, 208 security force members and 512 alleged terrorists, the lowest figure in a decade.

--IANS

ksk/hs