25 die in explosion at Pakistan polling station
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Reporting from ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A hospital official said Wednesday that an explosion outside a crowded polling station in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta killed 25 people and wounded 40.
Jaffer Kakar, a doctor, said five policemen and two children were among the dead. He feared the death toll could rise because many of the wounded were listed in critical condition.
Wednesday’s attack came as Pakistanis voted in general elections for 270 members of the law-making National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the police chief in Quetta, Baluchistan’s provincial capital, said the explosion took place near the city’s eastern bypass.
Baluchistan also saw the deadliest suicide bombing in the run-up to election day, with 149 people, including a provincial assembly candidate, killed at a campaign event this month.
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