Pakistan election panel summons meeting on rising poll violence

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's election panel has summoned top security officials for a meeting on Thursday (Feb 1) to discuss increasing violence in the country's western provinces ahead of next week's national election, including the killing of a candidate a day earlier.

The South Asian nation of 240 million is to go to the polls on Feb 8, but a surge in militant attacks and violence in its provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan has raised concerns about security for the exercise.

The meeting has been called to discuss the "deteriorating" law and order situation in the two provinces, a statement from the Election Commission of Pakistan said. Top security officials and intelligence agency representatives have been asked to join, it added.

Pakistan faces twin insurgencies - one in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by Islamist groups and one in the southwest by the ethno-nationalist Baloch groups.

A national assembly candidate was shot dead on Wednesday in a tribal district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa along the Afghan border. On the same day, another political leader was shot dead in his party's election office in Balochistan.

On Tuesday, a bomb attack following an election rally killed four people in Balochistan. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Separatist Baloch militants, including three suicide bombers, also launched a massive coordinated attack on a town in Balochistan on Monday which took hours for security forces to clear. At least 15 people were killed.

The US State Department has already expressed concern about the violence, which it said could undermine the electoral process.

Previously, Pakistan's Senate had passed a non-binding resolution calling for a delay in the elections due to security reasons.

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