KARACHI: Security forces on Sunday killed the mastermind of a 2018 election meeting bombing that killed over 150 people, including former Balochistan chief minister Aslam Raisani’s brother and Balochistan Awami Party leader Siraj Raisani, and injured hundreds in Mastung district of Balochistan.
Mumtaz, alias Mota Pehalwan, was killed in a security operation in the Mastung district, located 50 kilometres (31miles), miles from Quetta, Deputy Commissioner Ilyas Kubzai told reporters.
154 people were killed and more than 200 injured on July 13, 2018, in a suicide blast targeting the election rally of a local politician in Mastung.
The ISIS terror group had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Raisani became the second electoral candidate to be killed in pre-election violence in 2018.
A week before the Mastung attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a rally by an anti-Taliban political party in Peshawar, killing 20 people — including Haroon Bilour who was hoping to win a provincial assembly seat.
The proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.
Over the course of the last decade, Balochistan, and especially Quetta, has faced a deadly wave of violence and bombings.
Aside from its rich mineral deposits, the province is also a key route of the $64 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which aims to connect China’s strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province to Gwadar port through a network of roads, railways, and pipelines to transport cargo, oil, and gas.
