United States also decried the militant attack which killed at least 70 people.
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Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack and Kasi’s murder. He had been gunned down just hours earlier.
It was not immediately clear if the group had carried out the bombing, as it is believed to have claimed responsibility for attacks in the past that it was not involved in.
By March 2015, however, the group was again swearing loyalty to the main Pakistani Taliban umbrella leadership.
President of the French Republic, Mr. François Hollande condemns the attack against the Quetta Civil Hospital.
Saudi Ambassador Abdullah Marzouk Al-Zahrani condemned the bombing and said the people of Saudi Arabia stood with their brethren in Pakistan on this tragedy.
Television footage showed scenes of chaos at the hospital in Quetta, with panicked people fleeing through debris as smoke filled the corridors.
The city has seen a spate of killings, including lawyers, in recent weeks putting the government come under increasing pressure to improve security and crackdown on extremist violence.
Bilal Kasi, who was head of the Balochistan province bar association, had earlier been shot while on his way to the court complex in Quetta.
The subsequent suicide attack appeared to target his mourners, said Anwar ul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government.”It seems it was a pre-planned attack”, he said.
Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, joining a chorus of global condemnation.
The Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council said its members were holding a week of mourning and would boycott the courts in protest at the deaths, the BBC reported. The victims were mostly lawyers, and the attack targeted justice.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Quetta after the attack, and said “all state security institutions must respond with full might to decimate these terrorists”.
The brutality of such attacks have undercut militants’ support base, but they also underscore concerns that insurgents are still capable of striking in major cities, despite government claims of dismantling various terror networks.
Quetta, became a base for the Afghan Taliban and whose leader eventually held meeting there in past.
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Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Afghan Taliban leader was killed in May by a USA drone strike while travelling to Quetta from the Pakistan-Iran border.
