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Pakistani security forces on high alert

A Pakistani soldier patrols the streets of Lahore yesterday. Voters will go to the polls in parliamentary elections today in Pakistan. PHOTO: AP

Pakistani security forces were on their highest state of alert yesterday, the day before critical parliamentary polls, after a suicide car bomber killed 46 people and wounded nearly 100 at an election rally.

The government stepped up security for today's polls after the final day of campaigning was marred by the deadliest attack since the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto late last year.

"There are now 46 people dead and about 50 critically wounded who are being evacuated to Peshawar," said Fida Mohammad Khan, senior local administration official in the northwestern tribal town of Parachinar that borders Afghanistan.

A security official said there had been initial confusion about the number of dead because bodies were so badly damaged in the attack on Saturday.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has seen a wave of suicide attacks since Bhutto was killed in a suicide and gun attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi, casting doubt over the authority of key US ally Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

But officials pledged yesterday that voting will be peaceful and fair.

"This time, the process is completely transparent and there is no possibility of any wrongdoing or rigging," said Kanwar Dilshad, secretary of the election commission. "Everything has been put in place to make these elections the most transparent and fair in the history of Pakistan."

Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said that attempts to disrupt the polls would fail.

"Polling stations will be fully secured, the security of the voters will be ensured at all costs," Cheema said. "We know there are elements who are trying to sabotage the entire process but we will defeat their designs -- we are determined to do so."

Saturday's blast occurred at a rally for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.

Hours later, a second suicide car bomber attacked an army media center in the northwestern region of Swat, killing two civilians and wounding eight.

Cheema said more than 500,000 security and police personnel are being deployed to guard polling stations and provide security.

A resident of Parachinar, Khalil Shah, said yesterday that gunfire was continuing in the town after Saturday's blast.

Some areas were very tense, especially where Sunni and Shiite communities live together, he said.

Meanwhile, four paramilitary soldiers were killed yesterday when a remote-controlled bomb hit their vehicle in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said.

The soldiers of the Frontier Corps were killed by a roadside bomb in the Pir Koh gas field in Dera Bugti district, about 400km southeast of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province.

"Our personnel were on routine movement when their vehicle was blown up with a remote-controlled bomb by miscreant elements, killing them all," an official said.

Sarbaz Baluch, a spokesman from a group calling itself the Baluch Republican Army, claimed responsibility for the blast, giving a higher toll.

Baluch said the soldiers were traveling in two vehicles for duty during today's parliamentary elections.

"One vehicle was blown up with a remote-controlled bomb, killing eight soldiers and injuring more than 15 others," the spokesman said.

He added that after the blast the soldiers were attacked with rockets and heavy gun fire.

Baluch said the dead included an army major.

There was no way of verifying his claims.

The previously unknown group claimed responsibility on Feb. 7 for a blast in the town of Dera Murad Jamali, which a local official said killed two people.
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