Two bomb blasts at the election offices of a political party and an independent candidate in south-west Pakistan have killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens more, a day before parliamentary elections are to be held. The first blast rocked the election campaign office of an independent candidate in Pishin in the troubled region of Balochistan, killing 18 people and injuring at least 30 people, local authorities said. Less than an hour later there was a strong blast at an election office for the ultra-conservative party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) in the area of Qilla Saifullah, also in Balochistan. At least 12 people died and dozens more were injured. “The situation is tense and we are shifting the injured to hospitals in the provincial capital, Quetta, through helicopter. It was a heavy blast,” said Yasir Khan Bazai, a local deputy commissioner. Late on Wednesday, Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks. Rallies by JUI-F had already come under attack last year in two suicide attacks carried out by the Islamist group, which targeted the party for its affiliation with the Taliban. The bombings came despite the deployment of tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces across Pakistan to ensure peace during the elections after a recent surge in militant attacks in the country, especially in Balochistan. The security situation became so precarious in the region that the election commission had considered delaying elections in the province. The outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which has fought a long-running separatist insurgency in the region, has also been behind attacks on security forces in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran. The BLA had warned people against voting in Thursday’s general elections and asked them to boycott the polls. On 30 January, a separatist Balochistan militant group attacked security facilities in Balochistan’s Mach district, killing six people. More than two dozen attacks have been carried out in Balochistan in the past week alone. Balochistan’s caretaker home minister, Muhammad Zubair Jamali, said that almost 80% of the province’s 5,028 polling stations have been declared “sensitive”. Jan Achakzai, the provincial information minister, said internet services would be suspended around sensitive polling stations before Thursday’s polls but added that elections would take place “at all costs”. Achakzai said: “There is a concern that terrorists may exploit social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and other similar channels for communication purposes.” Nawaz Sharif, leader of the PML-N party and widely seen as the frontrunner in Thursday’s elections, condemned the blasts. “These cowardly terrorist attacks a few hours before the elections cannot dampen our spirits,” he said.