At least 28 people killed in suicide attack on Pakistan polling station

At least 28 people were killed and 35 wounded in a suicide attack on a polling station in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, officials said, as millions voted in a nationwide election Wednesday.

“(The bomber) was trying to enter the polling station. When police tried to stop him he blew himself up,” a local administration official in Quetta, Hashim Ghilzai, told AFP. The incident and toll were confirmed by a second senior local official.

The attack was not immediately claimed by any group.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s poorest and most restive province, suffers from Islamist and separatist insurgencies.

It was hit by several bombings during the brief but acrimonious election campaign — including a devastating blast claimed by the Islamic State group which killed 153 people this month, and was Pakistan’s deadliest ever suicide attack.

An earlier attack in the province on Wednesday left one policeman dead and three wounded when a hand grenade was thrown at a polling station in the village of Koshk, in Khuzdar district.

The military has stationed over 370,000 personnel across Pakistan to ensure security for the election, bolstered by an additional 450,000 police.   /vvp