Car bomb kills at least six and injures scores more after a bloody weekend of violence in Pakistan following election results

• The suicide bomber drove his car into the vehicle into a wall
  
• Hospital sources said the dead included a child and two policemen
  

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 04:05 EDT, 13 May 2013 | Updated: 04:55 EDT, 13 May 2013

A car bomb killed at least six people and wounded over 50 others after exploding outside a police chief's house in Pakistan. 

The suicide bomber drove his car into the vehicle into the wall of the official residence of Balochistan Police chief Mushtaq Sukhera late last night in Quetta.

Sukhera was not hurt in the attack, but hospital sources said the dead included a child, two policemen and three paramilitary soldiers.

Explosion: A car bomb killed at least six people and wounded over 50 others after exploding outside a police chief's house in Pakistan

Bloody weekend: The deaths follow a bloody weekend in Pakistan after Nawaz Sharif declared victory in Saturday's election

Killed: Hospital sources said the dead included a child after the blast yesterday

The deaths follow a bloody weekend in Pakistan after Nawaz Sharif declared victory in Saturday's election. 

Ten people died in twin blasts targeting the political offices of the Awami National Party (ANP) in Karachi, a roadside bomb in the city killed one other, and three more died in explosions in Peshawar.

In the southwestern province of Baluchistan, gunmen killed two people outside a polling station in the town of Sorab, while a shootout between supporters of two candidates in the town of Chaman left six dead, officials said.

The pockets of violence across the country have left dozens more wounded.

More than 130 people were killed in bombings and shootings ahead of the vote, which many observers have called Pakistan's most deadly election.

Nawaz Sharif gave a jubilant speech declaring himself to be in the lead after the bloody election day

Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-N party celebrate the primary unofficial results for the country's parliamentary elections

Politics: Imran Khan, leader of the Tehrik-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party, is mobbed by supporters at a rally last week ahead of the elections in which his party lost

Meanwhile former cricketing great Imran Khan is deciding whether to stand as Pakistan’s political opposition after losing the election to Nawaz Sharif who was toppled in a coup 14 years ago.

Sharif, once jailed and exiled, declared victory in a jubilant speech to supporters late on Saturday even as votes were still being counted. He is almost certain to become prime minister for a third time.

The margin of victory over Khan’s Movement of Justice (PTI) party, and the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party - gave Sharif’s party a clear mandate to guide the volatile country of 180 million over the next five years.

Khan put up a strong fight and he is likely to remain a force in politics, possibly becoming the main opposition figure.

But he had expected to do better and will be disappointed by the result.

Based on trends, Sharif’s PML-N party was likely to get around 130 seats, and should easily be able to make up the required majority of 137 with support from independents and small parties.

The poll was a democratic landmark, marking the first time one elected government replaced another in a country vulnerable to military takeovers.

Sharif, who was ousted in a 1999 bloodless coup by former army chief Pervez Musharraf, was tried and jailed before going into exile in Saudi Arabia.

He will have to work with Pakistan’s generals, who set foreign and security policy and will manage the country’s thorny relationship with the United States as NATO troops withdraw from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2014.

Support: Prior to the elections crowds listen to Khan's speech from his hospital bed - a horrific fall from a forklift during a campaign event left him badly injured

He also believes Pakistan should reconsider its support for the U.S. war on Islamist militancy, which has earned the country billions of dollars in aid.

He will likely press for negotiation with the Pakistan wing of the Taliban, whose bombing attacks failed to derail the election, but he could run into resistance from the military which has lost thousands of soldiers fighting the insurgency.

In the end, Khan, who fractured vertebrae in a fall from a campaign stage last week, did not have the momentum needed to trip up Sharif despite his popularity among urban youths, many of whom were voting for the first time.

Explosions: An injured blast victim is pushed to hospital on a stretcher after twin bombs exploded in Karachi on election day in Pakistan

Restive: A paramilitary soldier stands beside a burning vehicle in the town of Chaman, where a shootout between the supporters of two candidates left six people dead

Scene: The twin blasts in Karachi, Pakistan, ahead of Saturday's landmark poll left at least 11 people dead, according to early reports

They had rallied behind Khan’s calls for an end to fraud and a halt to U.S. drone strikes against suspected militants on Pakistani soil, widely seen as a violation of sovereignty.

In a video message, Khan said the election would boost Pakistan’s young democracy, but added his party was collecting evidence of what he said was vote-rigging.

“We are now moving towards democracy. I congratulate the nation on the numbers in which they turned out to vote. The youth was with me. That is my victory,” he said.