Pakistanis vote in historic polls, 15 killed in violence

Tens of thousands voted today in Pakistan's landmark general elections to choose new national and provincial assemblies despite a string of bomb attacks in Karachi and the country's restive northwest that killed at least 15 people and injured many others.
Long queues were seen outside thousands of polling stations across the country despite threats of attacks by the Taliban, which said it would target the elections as they are part of the "infidel system" of democracy.
The polls marked the first democratic transition of power in Pakistan's 66-year history.
"The turnout has been amazing it is beyond our expectations," Chief election commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim told PTI after visiting several polling stations.

"There should be a turnout of around 70 to 75 percent by the way the people have responded to these elections," he said.
Thirteen people were killed and over 40 others injured in three bomb attacks in the southern port city of Karachi.

The first blast went off near the election office of Amanullah Mehsud, an Awami National Party candidate contesting polls to the Sindh Assembly.
Mehsud escaped unhurt though several ANP workers were among the dead and injured.
The second blast went off minutes later near a polling station and an ANP office in the same area as rescue teams were busy rushing the victims of the first attack to hospital.

The second blast triggered a stampede at the polling station and disrupted voting.
Two persons were killed and several injured when a bus was targeted by the third blast at Qasba Colony in Karachi.
Two policemen were killed and four others injured in an explosion at Toorghar in Peshawar. In Peshawar, a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off outside a women's polling station, injuring eight persons.
Five persons were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest after he was intercepted by police outside another polling station in a suburb of Peshawar.
Several persons were injured in a blast in Quetta, the capital of the restive southwestern province of Balochistan.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks.