Polling station bombed in Pakistan as voting takes place tomorrow

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 16 (AP): Suspected militants bombed a polling station in northwest Pakistan Saturday, two days before parliamentary elections considered crucial to restoring democracy.
More than a dozen bombs heavily damaged a partially constructed jail that was to be used for voting in Khar, the main town in the Bajur area along the border with Afghanistan, said Mowaz Khan, tribal police officer Mowaz Khan. He said the bombs were detonated by remote control. Nobody was hurt.
Monday's elections are taking place against a backdrop of rising Islamic militancy throughout Pakistan, and many candidates have been discouraged from holding large rallies. Security fears are running highest along the lawless tribal area near the Afghan border.
The December 27 assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and a string of suicide bombings -- some targeting campaign rallies -- have been blamed on al-Qaeda- or Taliban-linked militants.
The government has deployed 81,000 soldiers to back up 392,000 police assigned to protect voters, said military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.
Recent opinion surveys show the opposition poised for a landslide victory amid disenchantment with eight years of military rule under President Pervez Musharraf.
Although Musharraf is not up for re-election, he could face impeachment if the opposition wins a two-thirds majority in the legislature.
Opposition politicians fear the results will be manipulated in hopes of assuring the ruling party enough seats to block any impeachment.
Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch questioned the election commission's impartiality, saying it has ignored complaints of harassment against opposition candidates.
On Friday, Senator Joseph Biden, Delaware Democrat who head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the United States (US) should consider cutting off military aid to Pakistan if the elections are rigged.
Saturday's bombing came a day after police announced they had seized bomb-making materials and arrested 10 suspected Taliban-linked militants in Karachi, where some 150 people died in an October suicide attack that narrowly missed Bhutto. She died 10 weeks later in a second attack.
The militants had a long list of targets, including politicians, law enforcers, businessmen and army officials. They had set up a laboratory in an industrial area in Karachi to prepare poisons and explosives and for training recruits, provincial police chief Azhar Farooqi said.
The suspects had been arrested last month but the arrests were only announced Friday after investigations, he said.
On Saturday, the police arrested a man found with a suicide vest in Hyderabad, about 100 miles north of Karachi, said regional police chief Shaukat Shah.