The Catholic Church in Pakistan has condemned a suicide blast at a hospital in Quetta, south-west Pakistan, in which at least 70 people – many of them lawyers and journalists – were killed and more than 120 injured.
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Seventy people were killed when a suicided attacker blew himself up at a hospital in Quetta in restive Balochistan province.
In January, a suicide bomber killed 15 people outside a polio removal center, attack claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and Jundullah, an Islamist militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State in the Middle East.
“The South African government condemns in the strongest terms the inhumane and gruesome terrorist attack against a hospital in Pakistan”.
On Tuesday morning, four of over one hundred people wounded, including two more lawyers, died in hospital, taking the toll to 74, said Abdul Rehman, the medical superintendent at the Civil Hospital Quetta.
“It’s very tragic. Our seniors who were our intellectuals have been killed and may God reward them in heaven”, lawyer Ghulam Muhammad told AFP in Quetta.
In Balochistan – Quetta is the provincial capital – markets and schools have been closed.
Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, joining a chorus of worldwide condemnation.
A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, said it was behind the bombing.
Monday’s attack was the worst in Pakistan since an Easter Day bombing ripped through a Lahore park, killing at least 72 people.
Only last week, Jamaat was added to the United States’ list of global terrorists, activated sanctions. The bomber killed dozens of people and wounded many others in an attack that struck a gathering of Pakistani. The Sunni group has attracted some support in Pakistan, but has largely struggled to gain a foothold there due to competition from established groups like the Taliban.
Local police said that most of the victims were buried yesterday while dead bodies of those belonged to far flung areas were sent to their homes to be buried at their native places. It remains unclear which group was responsible for the attack. The perpetrators “cannot be called humans”, he said with anger.
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“We express our strong condemnation”. However, according to Reuters, analysts say ISIS’ claim is “unconvincing”.
