UPDATE 3 - Bombings kill 29 in Pakistan on eve of polls

UPDATES WITH LATEST DEATH TOLL, DETAILS OF 3RD BLAST IN KARACHI; CHANGES, HEAD, DECK, LEDE

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) — At least 29 people were killed and dozens of others injured on Wednesday in three separate bombings that Pakistani authorities have called "terrorist attacks" ahead of a high-stake national vote.

The first blast took place in the Pishin district of southwestern Balochistan province only a day before elections, killing at least 16 people, provincial Information Minister Jan Achakzai told Anadolu.

The blast occurred as a crowd of supporters of an independent candidate gathered outside his election office in the district.

Achakzai said the bomb was planted on a motorbike parked near the office.

More than 30 injured were taken to the hospital, many of them in critical condition.

Hours later, another bomb attack in the nearby Qila Saifullah district left at least 12 dead and several others injured.

Achakzai told Anadolu that the blast targeted an election office of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party.

In the third incident, the latest in a string of poll-related violence, a suspected militant was killed when a hand grenade he was believed to have carried went off in the southern port city of Karachi, police said.

Two passers-by were also injured, Irfan bahadur, a city police chief, told reporters, adding that there no information was immediately available on the potential target.

The leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, former Senator Hafiz Hamdullah, escaped unscathed an attack when unknown assailants opened fire on his vehicle in the Chaman district of Balochistan, near Afghanistan border, police said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Footage aired on local broadcaster ARY News showed rescuers and local people shifting the bodies and injured into ambulances to transport them to the hospital.

Achakzai said that the attacks are the latest attempt by “terrorists to sabotage the elections.”

“But I want to make it clear that the elections will go ahead as scheduled,” Achakzai maintained.

Nearly four dozen people, including 24 suspected terrorists and 14 security personnel, have been killed in a series of attacks in Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces in less than two weeks.