At least 25 people are dead and dozens wounded after an explosion has ripped through a market in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, officials say.
Police said a bomb had exploded in the Kissa Khwani market, with shops and vehicles set alight.
The blast comes a week after a double suicide bombing that killed at least 80 people at a church in the city.
On Friday, at least 17 people were killed in the bombing of a bus carrying government employees near Peshawar.
Peshawar, the main city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been hit by numerous bomb and gun attacks blamed on Taliban insurgents in recent years.
At least 25 people are dead and dozens wounded after an explosion has ripped through a market in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar
Police said they suspected the explosion was caused by a car bomb.
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper quoted the health minister as saying that the main Peshawar police station may have been the main target.
An emergency situation was declared at the Lady Reading Hospital as it received the injured, many of them badly burned.
Rising violence has hindered new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s overtures to end the insurgency through peace talks with the Taliban.
The Taliban have consistently rejected Pakistan’s constitution and demand the imposition of Sharia law.
Nawaz Sharif is in New York at the UN and is to meet Indian PM Manmohan Singh later on Sunday.
Ahead of the talks, Manmohan Singh said Pakistan must stop being “the epicentre of terrorism”.
Last Sunday’s attack on the historic All Saints church – thought to be the deadliest attack against Christians in Pakistan – sparked angry protests nationwide.
Two Islamist militant groups with Taliban links said they had ordered the attack to hit back at US drone strikes.
More than 120 people were wounded.
Friday’s bus bomb targeted government employees returning home in the Gulbela area, some 9 miles north-east of the city.
In addition to those killed, at least 34 people were injured.
Pakistan votes in landmark national and provincial elections.
The vote marks Pakistan’s first transition from one civilian government to another in its 66-year history.
However, the run-up to the election has been marred by violence in which more than 100 people have been killed.
A bomb blast in the port city of Karachi on Saturday morning left 10 people dead and 32 others wounded, a hospital official said.
Tens of thousands of troops are deployed at polling stations after the Pakistani Taliban threatened to carry out suicide attacks.
Hours before polls opened, Pakistan sealed its borders with Iran and Afghanistan in a bid to keep foreign militants at bay.
Officials said the borders would remain closed for the next three days.
Queues started forming before polling stations opened at 08:00 on Saturday.
At one polling station in the capital, Islamabad, more than 200 people waited patiently to vote.
Abdul Sattar, 74, said: “We want change, we are really fed up with old faces coming back to power every time and doing nothing for the nation.”
EU observers in the eastern city of Lahore said that voting there was going smoothly and without any interruptions.
In Peshawar there were long queues of women waiting to vote. Many are voting for the first time and are excited about being part of a historic change.
Polling stations will close at 17:00.
The Taliban on Friday warned voters to boycott polling stations in order to avoid attacks on the offices of political parties.
Long queues of women waiting to vote in Pakistan
The militants have been blamed for numerous attacks throughout the campaign on Pakistan’s three most prominent liberal parties.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) along with the Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have been singled out for attacks by the Taliban.
As a result, the parties were forced to curtail their election campaigning.
Around two hours after polling started, a bomb attack was reported in Karachi, apparently targeting an ANP candidate outside the party’s political office.
Ten people were killed and 32 others were wounded, said an official at Jinnah Hospital. The local ANP candidate, Amanullah Mahsud, who was in the office at the time of the attack, was wounded but not seriously,
The attack happened in the Landhi area of Karachi, an industrial district known for Taliban activity. Another ANP candidate and his son were shot dead close to the area last week.
There were also reports of explosions in Peshawar in the north-west of the country and Quetta in the south-west. At least five people were hurt in Peshawar when a bomb went off attached to a motorcycle.
Militants have so far avoided targeting the campaigns of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Nawaz Sharif and the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party of Imran Khan.
Nawaz Sharif, who was deposed as prime minister in a military coup 14 years ago, is seen as favorite to return for a third term of office.
In a bid to clamp down on corruption, election officials say electoral rolls have been refreshed and a text messaging service will provide voting information to individuals.
In previous elections there have been accusations that candidates and some state institutions rigged the vote by setting up ghost polling stations and creating millions of fake voters on the electoral rolls.
However, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Friday expressed “acute concern” about the manner in which the violence has “impaired the fairness of the elections almost beyond repair”.
It called on all institutions to “stretch themselves to their absolute limit to ensure security of voters, candidates and polling stations on Saturday so that the people can exercise their right to choose their representatives”.
The Taliban threat sparked a major security operation leading up to the vote.
More than 600,000 security and army personnel have been deployed to guard against possible attacks on polling day.
On Thursday, the son of former PM Yusuf Raza Gilani was abducted during a rally.
Opinion polls indicate there could be a record turnout, higher than the 44% in the last elections in 2008.
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Famous Pakistani singer Ghazala Javed has been shot dead in the north-western city of Peshawar.
Ghazala Javed and her father were killed when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on them late on Monday, police say.
Police say the murders may be linked to a family dispute.
Ghazala Javed, who sang in her native Pashto, was from Pakistan’s Swat valley, which she fled three years ago during a military offensive against Taliban militants in the region.
Ghazala Javed and her father were killed when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on them late on Monday
Singers and dancers were particularly targeted by insurgents when they overran the area in 2007.
Ghazala Javed at one point was also forced to stop singing because of threats.
The singer, who was in her twenties, later married a businessman but they are thought to have divorced.
Correspondents say her music fused eastern and western traditions.
Tributes from fans across Afghanistan and Pakistan have been pouring into social media sites.
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At least 18 people have been killed and other 34 have been injured in a bomb attack on a bus carrying government employees in north west Pakistan.
The bus is said to have been taking the workers to their offices when it was hit on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar.
Peshawar lies near Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt – a stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
Hundreds have died in attacks in and around the city in recent years.
No group has so far said it carried out the latest attack, but it comes a day after a bomb killed at least 15 people in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
It is believed explosives were planted in a roadside vehicle and remotely detonated as the bus passed on Friday.
At least 18 people have been killed and other 34 have been injured in a bomb attack on a bus carrying government employees in north west Pakistan
Witnesses said the explosion seemed to hit the back of the bus, which was moving at speed and drove on for some distance after the blast.
Police say the bus was carrying employees from Peshawar to Charsadda and that it appeared to be the target of the attack.
The explosion took place near a police station on a main road in the Gul Bela village area, on the northern outskirts of Peshawar.
The dead and injured were rushed to hospitals in Peshawar. The dead are thought to include at least four children and some women.
