The United States has said it will stand with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism, and strongly condemned the bomb blast in Quetta that killed dozens of people.
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Quetta and the rest of Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, have always been plagued by insurgency.
“A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta”, Amaq said.
It was not the first time that militants in Pakistan have targeted lawyers.
Taliban’s Jamaatul Ahrar faction and Islamic State extremists claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Lawyers throughout the country will boycott court proceedings on Tuesday in protest against the killing of lawyers in Quetta yesterday”, said a statement from the Pakistan Bar Council, adding that provincial and district bar councils would follow suit.
Facebook activated its safety check after the hospital blast.
Kasi was shot and killed by gunmen earlier on Monday, as he was on his way to his office, and the lawyers later gathered at the Quetta Civil Hospital to express their grief. In Quetta, businesses remained shut to mourn the victims. Kasi was the president of Balochistan Bar Association (BA) Advocate.
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.
Gen. Raheel Sharif, the powerful army chief of Pakistan, visited the Quetta Civil Hospital, and met with those wounded in the attack.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which broke away from the Pakistani Taliban in 2014, has claimed a number of attacks, including a bombing that targeted Christians at a park in Lahore on Easter Sunday that killed more than 70 people.
In Quetta, senior attorney Mohammad Ashraf stood with colleagues in an open area outside a court building where they had often gathered for breaks with numerous lawyers who were killed Monday.
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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.
