Pakistan’s Senate deputy chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri on Friday narrowly escaped an assassination attempt with injuries when a suicide bomber targeted his convoy, killing at least 25 people and wounding 35 others in the restive Balochistan province. The driver and other people sitting next to me were badly injured.”

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. At least 35 people were wounded in the blast near the town of Mastung, 50 km (30 miles) from the provincial capital of Quetta. Television footage from the scene showed severe damage to several vehicles and motorcycles. Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, the deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament, told Reuters minutes after the blast that he believed he was the target and he had sustained minor injuries. “I have talked to the Chief Secretary of Balochistan and asked him to airlift Haideri to Quetta,” he said. Haideri is a member of one of the influential political parties called Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), which is in a coalition with Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif’s government. Hospital official Shafi Zaidi, who heads the main hospital in Mastung, said eight to 10 of the wounded were in critical condition. Mastung police official Ghazanfar Ali Shah said the convoy appeared to have been hit by a suicide bomber and at least 17 people were killed, including Haideri's driver.
A bomb hits a convoy of the Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, near Mastung in the province of Balochistan, killing at least 25 people and wounding 35 others, including the Senate's Deputy Chairman.