More than 130 people including a senior politician, Nawabzada Siraj Raisani, were killed and over 160 injured in Friday’s twin blasts which happened in two different places in Pakistan ahead of the general elections this month.
Balochistan province’s home minister Agha Umar Bungalzai said the death toll in the town of Mastung “has risen to 128”. A senior provincial government official also confirmed the figure, adding that 150 others were injured in the attack.
Balochistan’s civil defence director Aslam Tareen and Bungalzai said the blast was a suicide attack.
Following the blast, security forces cordoned off the area and the injured were shifted to nearby hospitals.
The blast in the town of Mastung, near the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta, came hours after another bomb killed at least four people at a campaign rally in Bannu in the country’s northwest.
The ISIS group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at the political rally, according to the group’s Amaq propaganda agency.
