At least 15 have been killed and 70 wounded in the explosion, where hundreds of members of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) had gathered, the party’s president Akhtar Mengal said.

The bomber detonated his explosives-laden jacket in the parking area around 15 minutes after the meeting ended, police officials said.

Survivors carried the wounded to safety while rescuers picked their way through twisted metal, pools of blood and scattered body parts to retrieve the victims.

Mr Mengal and other senior political leaders from opposition parties, including Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, were also present, but escaped unhurt.

Six vehicles, including their bulletproof cars, were damaged in the explosion.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the blast and called it a cowardly attack on innocent people.

“We will crush their nefarious designs,” Bugti said, adding that attackers would be hunted down and punished.

In a separate attack on Tuesday in Balochistan, five security personnel were killed near the border with Iran.

The Frontier Corps border guards died and three others were injured when their convoy was targeted by a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) in the Buleda area of Kech district, near the Pakistan-Iran border.

On the same day, six soldiers and six militants were killed during an assault on a paramilitary base in north-west Pakistan that began with a suicide bomber ramming the compound.

The suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into the boundary wall of the base in the town of Bannu early on Tuesday, causing an explosion that allowed other attackers to enter the compound, said Sajjad Khan, the regional police chief.

The ensuing exchange of fire lasted 12 hours, ending after the six attackers were killed, the official said.

The militant group Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan claimed responsibility for that attack.

The attacks follow a surge in militant violence in Pakistan, with the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) reporting more than 2,526 deaths in 2024 – including 1600 civilians – the deadliest year in a decade.

Balochistan remains a hotspot, with separatist attacks rising by 119 per cent here in 2024, driven by groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), designated as a terror organisation by the US.

Pakistani forces have been battling an insurgency in the province for more than a decade, and in 2024 the region saw a sharp rise in violence, with 782 people killed.

Since January 1, nearly 430 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed in violence carried out by armed groups fighting the state in Balochistan and neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and most resource-rich province, but also its most improvised, and regularly ranks among the lowest on human development indicator scorecards.

The BNP campaigns for greater political and economic rights for the Baloch people.

Since 2014, China has invested significantly in building infrastructure including the Gwadar port and multiple roads under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), that passes through the region.

Many Baloch, however, accuse the military-backed federal governments of denying them the benefits while passing them on to outsiders, mostly Punjabis.

Suicide bomb attacks kill 15 people at Pakistan political rally