The Pakistan Election Commission has called senior security officials to a meeting today, Thursday, to discuss the rising violence in the western regions of the country ahead of the general elections scheduled for next week, which included the killing of a candidate yesterday, Wednesday. A statement from the Pakistan Election Commission indicated that among the issues to be discussed in the meeting is the "deterioration" of law and order in the two regions. It added that high-ranking security officials and representatives from the intelligence agency have been invited to the meeting.
Pakistan is facing two insurgent movements, the first in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region in the northwest from Islamist groups and the second in the southwest from ethnic Baloch groups. The elections in Pakistan, which has an estimated population of around 240 million, will take place on February 8, but attacks by militants and increasing violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan raise concerns about security during the electoral process itself.
A candidate for the National Assembly was shot dead yesterday, Wednesday, in a tribal area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the border with Afghanistan. On the same day, another political leader was shot dead at his party's election office in Balochistan.
