A bomb tore through a Pakistan political rally Monday, killing 14 people and wounding 56 in one of the deadliest attacks on the campaign for Pakistan's historic elections on Saturday.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, saying its target had been a lawmaker elected as an independent but allied to the outgoing government. Officials said the lawmaker escaped unhurt.

The killings bring to 83 the number of people killed in attacks on politicians and political parties since April 11, according to an AFP tally.

The device hit a rally by the right-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), a religious party in the outgoing government coalition. It exploded in Kurram, one of the seven districts making up Pakistan's Taliban-infested tribal belt on the Afghan border.

"At least 14 people have been confirmed dead and 56 injured," Riaz Khan, the top administrative official in Kurram, told AFP. "I fear the death toll could rise further because several of the injured are in a critical condition," he added.

The apparent target, Munir Orakzai, escaped unhurt while Khan said the other, Ain u Din Shakir, was slightly injured.

Khan said the bomb was planted inside the building that was the venue for the rally of two national assembly candidates representing the JUI faction led by cleric Fazul-ur-Rehman.

It was the first deadly attack on a political party in Pakistan's tribal belt since campaigning began for the polls, which will mark the country's first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has completed a full term in office.

Pakistan's interim Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso strongly condemned the attack and said another national assembly candidate had been injured.

Repeated calls for candidates to be granted more security have failed to stop a wave of attacks, most of them claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

"Basically it was an attack on Munir Orakzai, who was a part of the past government for five years," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone.

The Pakistani Taliban have condemned the elections as unIslamic and directly threatened the main outgoing coalition parties, the Pakistan People's Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party.

Rehman and his JUI faction have been a mediator between the authorities and the Taliban, blamed for killing thousands of Pakistanis in a domestic insurgency over the last six years.

Elections have been postponed in three constituencies, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi and in the southern city of Hyderabad, where candidates have been killed.

AFP