Pakistan’s government has said that the general elections in the country will go ahead as planned. The statement comes after the country’s poll body held a meeting with government and intelligence officials to discuss a spike in violence.
Caretaker Interior Minister Gohar Ijaz said that a spate of attacks in the southwestern Balochistan province, where Islamabad has fought a decades-long insurgency, posed no security threat. He said, they would provide proper security for the elections.
General elections are scheduled to be held in Pakistan on the 8th of February.
In the past few days, a dozen separate attacks have been reported across Balochistan, at least five of which targeted candidates from different political parties. On Tuesday, at least four people were killed in a bomb blast near a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally in the provincial capital Quetta. In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, at least two candidates have been shot dead since the start of January.
