Suicide bomber kills at least 128 at a Pakistan election rally

At least 133 people have been killed - including a parliamentary candidate - and more than 230 wounded in two separate election-related bombings in Pakistan.



Authorities are calling the attacks the deadliest attacks in the country's history.



The blast in the town of Mastung, near the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta, was the latest in a string of attacks that have spurred fears of violence ahead of nationwide polls on July 25, and underscored the fragility of Pakistan's dramatic gains in security.



Authorities said the suicide bomber detonated in the middle of a compound where the political meeting was taking place.



Four others died in a strike in Pakistan's northwest, spreading panic across the country.



"Human remains and red bloody pieces of flesh were littered everywhere in the compound. Injured people were crying in pain and fear," journalist Attah Ullah said, from the scene of the larger attack.



One political worker, Salam Baloch, said he heard a "deafening blast" and saw a "thick grey ball of fire and smoke".



"People put... bodies and the injured in rickshaws and other vehicles and rushed them to hospital before rescue officials arrived," he added.



Emergency workers also shuttled victims in ambulances as bystanders sobbed in the darkness due to the lack of electricity in the impoverished area.



Survivors in blood-smeared clothes were taken to hospitals in Mastung and nearby Quetta, where they were greeted by tense crowds of mourners, an AFP reporter said. The deceased could be seen covered in shrouds.



"The death toll has risen to 128," Balochistan home minister Agha Umar Bungalzai told AFP. A senior provincial government official also confirmed the figure, adding that 150 others were injured.



Among the dead was Siraj Raisani, who was running for a provincial seat with the newly-formed local Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Bungalzai said.



The attack was the most lethal since Taliban militants assaulted a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in 2014, killing more than150 people, mostly children, and one of the deadliest in Pakistan's long struggle with militancy.



It came hours after four people were killed and 39 injured when a bomb hidden inside a motorcycle detonated close to another politician's convoy in Bannu on Friday, near the border with Afghanistan.



The politician - Akram Khan Durrani, a candidate of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) party - survived, police said. No group has yet claimed responsibility for that attack.



On Tuesday, a bomb claimed by the Pakistani Taliban targeted a rally by the Awami National Party (ANP) in the city of Peshawar.



Local ANP leader Haroon Bilour was among the 22 killed. Thousands flocked to his funeral the next day.



'Duty to protect'
The Islamic State group has a muted presence in Pakistan but has carried out brutal attacks there in the past, including the blast at a Sufi shrine in February last year which killed nearly 90 people.



Militants have targeted politicians, religious gatherings, security forces and even schools in Pakistan.



But security across the country has dramatically improved since government and military operations cleared large swathes of territory near the Afghan border in recent years.



Analysts warn, however, that Pakistan has yet to tackle the root causes of extremism, and militants retain the ability to carry out attacks.