The Latest: IS claims deadly attack on Pakistani lawmaker
May 12, 2017
The Latest: Islamic State group says it carried out attack on Pakistani lawmaker in Baluchistan province.
ISLAMABAD — The Latest on the attack in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province (all times local):
4:50 p.m.
The Islamic State group says that it carried out the deadly attack on Pakistan's deputy Senate leader in the country's southwestern Baluchistan province.
The claim of responsibility was posted on IS-affiliated Aaamaq news agency with hours of the suicide bombing that killed 25 near the provincial capital of Quetta. Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, the senior lawmaker, suffered only minor injuries in the attack.
His car was targeted by a suicide bomber shortly after he left a seminary in the town of Mastung near the provincial capital Quetta on Friday.
IS posted its claim just hours after the attack, which also wounded over 30 people. It said a martyrdom-seeking fighter detonated his explosives vest near Haideri's convoy.
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4:40 p.m.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned the bombing attack on the deputy leader of the Senate that killed at least 25 other people in the country's southwestern Baluchistan province.
Government official Munir Raisani says the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault on Friday in the town of Mastung.
A statement from the prime minister says he is praying for the swift recovery of the lawmaker, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, who was lightly wounded in the explosion.
Sharif also requested authorities ensure the best medical care for those wounded in the attack.
Raisani says over 30 people were wounded in the attack as well.
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4:20 p.m.
Pakistani police have raised the death toll from a huge bombing in the country's southwestern Baluchistan province to 25 killed.
A powerful bomb struck on Friday in the town of Mastung, targeting the convoy of the deputy leader of the Senate, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, who was lightly wounded in the attack.
Local government official Munir Raisani says that along with the 25 killed, more than 30 people, including some policemen, were also wounded in the attack.
He says Haideri is in a stable condition at a hospital in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Local TV stations broadcast footage showing Haideri's badly damaged car. From the hospital, the lawmaker told Pakistani Dunya news channel that he saw several bodies at scene of the blast.
Haider's extremist and pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party is headed by Fazlur Rehman who is known for his anti-U.S. stance.
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3 p.m.
Pakistani police say bomb attack in southwestern Baluchistan province that wounded the deputy leader of the country's Senate killed 15 people and wounded up to 35 others.
Earlier, officials reported that the lawmaker, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, was lightly wounded along with several others when a powerful roadside bomb struck his convoy in the town of Mastung on Friday.
Later, senior police officer Abdul Razzaq Cheema confirmed that 15 people were killed in the attack and another 35 were wounded. He says at least one police officer was among those killed in the bombing.
He says the victims have been taken to hospital. Several were reported to be in critical condition.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
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