Blast outside PPP office: Toll rises to 27

ISLAMABAD: At least 27 people were killed and over 90 injured in a suicide attack on Saturday on the office of a Pakistan People's Party candidate in northwestern Pakistan, heightening security fears for Monday's crucial parliamentary polls. The suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the office of PPP candidate Riaz Hussain Shah at a market in Parachinar, the main town of the troubled Kurram Agency, officials said. Shah, who along with his supporters was returning from a rally escaped unhurt, officials said. Limbs and body parts lay strewn all over the site of the attack, which occurred hours before the end of the violence-marred campaign. The suicide bombing was the latest in a string of such attacks on election rallies and candidates in northwestern Pakistan. PPP chief and former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack on December 27 and the violence that erupted after her death forced the Election Commission to postpone the polls by six weeks. The Pakistan government has deployed nearly 500,000 security personnel, including 81,000 soldiers, to maintain law and order during the polls. Kurram agency had witnessed fierce sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis last year that left over 300 dead.