Security personnel stand guard as supporters of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari cheer during an election campaign rally in Batkhela town of Malakand district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Jan 31, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's general election will go ahead as scheduled next Thursday, caretaker interior minister Gohar Ejaz said, after the a meeting summoned by the election commission to discuss increasing pre-poll violence in the west of the country.

The panel had summoned top security officials on Thursday to discuss the clashes in the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan after the killing of a candidate in a tribal district along the Afghan border a day earlier.

On Tuesday, a bomb attack following an election rally killed four people in Balochistan. Islamic State claimed responsibility

"There should be no doubts that the election will be on Feb 8," Ejaz said.

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Pakistan faces twin insurgencies - one in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by Islamist groups and one in the southwest by ethno-nationalist Baloch groups.

A national assembly candidate was shot dead on Wednesday in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. On the same day, another political leader was shot dead in his party's election office in Balochistan.

On Tuesday, a bomb attack following an election rally killed four people in Balochistan. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Separatist Baloch militants, including three suicide bombers, also launched a massive coordinated attack on a town in Balochistan on Monday which took hours for security forces to clear. At least 15 people were killed.

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Pakistan's Senate had earlier passed a non-binding resolution calling for a delay in the elections due to security reasons.