2 Killed, Many Injured In Sindh LG Polls.

KARACHI -- Counting of votes for the Local Governments first phase held in 14 districts of Sindh was in progress amid incidents of sporadic armed clashes between party workers leaving two persons dead and several others injured.

The polling began at 8am and continued until 5pm without any pause. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) also announced extending the voting time in areas where the polling was stopped due to some reason.

The 14 districts of Sindh include Larkana, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Naushehro Feroze, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, and Tharparkar. The elections in the rest of the districts of Sindh will be held on July 24.

At least 21,298 candidates are in the field against 6,277 seats of 101 town committees, 23 municipal committees, 14 district councils, four municipal corporations, eleven town municipal corporations and 887 union councils and union committees.

Two persons were killed while several others injured during the sporadic clashes between rival groups during polling process.

A man was shot dead and three were injured during a clash between JUI and PPP workers in Sukkur. The two parties were clashing over election proceedings at a polling station in Rohri. Police were called to diffuse tension as the faceoff between PPP and PTI workers continues at Saleh Pat polling station in Sukkur.

According to officials, polling was stopped in Ward 1 while PTI candidate protested the illegal appointment of a male officer in the female booth of Ward 4. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has postponed elections in some areas including Ghotki District's Mirpur Mathelo after wrong names of candidates were printed on ballot papers.

The security has been tightened with deployment of 2,438 policemen, 11 companies of the Pak Army on standby and 1,509 Rangers were also deployed. Meanwhile, the voter counts are going down in Rohri, which has 12 wards, due to very hot weather. The temperature is 47AdegC and it feels like 51AdegC.

Some unknown assailants attacked three polling stations in Nawabshah and made the polling staff hostage over there. After making the election staff hostage, the unknown attackers made off with ballot papers, ballot boxes, stamps and other election material. The balloting could not be started as yet in Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto, Nawaz Ali and Social Security polling stations in Union 8 in Nawabshah.

On the other hand, the PTI activists...