More than a hundred people have been killed in Pakistan in the run up to this weekend’s National Assembly elections.  And now the son of a former Prime Minister has been kidnapped.

Unidentified gunmen on motorcycles sped up to a rally in Multan where Ali Haider Gilani of the secular People’s Party of Pakistan (PPP) had just wrapped up addressing supporters about his bid for a provincial assembly seat.  They shot into the crowd, killing at least one person, and forced Gilani into a waiting car.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari immediately condemned the attack as a “reprehensible act of a cowardly enemy.”  Suspicion immediately focused on the Pakistani Taliban and banned sectarian militant groups.

The kidnapping is the latest incident in what has turned out to be the most violent election campaign in Pakistan’s history.

Militants and extremists with differing objectives have attacked and killed candidates and party supporters in different areas of the country, targeting not only moderate and secular parties like the PPP, but also rival religious and nationalist parties.  The situation was made worse when the Supreme Court ruled to withdraw funding for security for candidates.

"We were not allowed to keep security guards," said Abdul Qadir Gilani, the eldest brother of the Gilani political dynasty, who is also running for a seat in Parliament, "The result is in front of you."