Campaign bombing hits Pakistan

The bomb on Tuesday killed five people in the town of Hangu in northwestern Pakistan, but a police officer speaking with the AFP news agency said the death toll could rise.

The bomb exploded at a rally for a candidate of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, a religious party in the outgoing Pakistani coalition. The rally was for Syed Janan, who appears to have escaped injury. About two dozen people were injured in the blast, however.

Pakistan is holding elections on May 11 which will represent the country's first democratic transfer of power in the nation's history.

But the Pakistani Taliban sees the elections as un-Ismalic and has carried out attacks against candidates from leading parties that take a harder-line view of the Taliban's activities in the country. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, however, is not seen as a party that would be particularly tough on the Taliban if elected.

On Monday, another attack on a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam rally killed over 20 people. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, but so far no one has stepped forward to claim Tuesday's bomb.

The repeated attacks have forced some politicians to refrain from active campaigning. Parties such as Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam have not had to remain behind closed doors, but its supporters are now among the roughly 100 people killed ahead of the elections.

mz/msh (AFP, AP, dpa)