Dozens of others were injured in the blast, which happened on the grounds of a government-run hospital earlier today in the capital of Quetta.
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The decision was taken during an emergency security meeting chaired by the army chief at Pakistan Army’s Balochistan Corps Headquarters on Monday. The Quetta Shura, a group of leaders of the Afghan Taliban, is believed to be based in the city.
“Uprooting terrorism would be an impossible act unless worldwide community joins in a serious effort to block the paths by which terrorists receive resources and finance from its supporters”, Shamkhani concluded.
-July 2: Suicide bombers attack Pakistan’s most revered Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 47 people. The provincial government has declared three days of mourning over the tragedy while the lawyers body has announced a countrywide strike for tomorrow.
One of those who survived the bombing described a horrifying scene, saying there were “bodies everywhere” after the blast.
Waliur Rehman says he was taking his ailing father to the hospital’s emergency ward when the explosion shook the building on Monday.
“This brutal and senseless attack on civilians, so many of them lawyers working to bring justice to their country, will not undermine one of the most important pillars of Pakistan’s democracy and civil society”, said American Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale in a statement.
But he said he didn’t know he would “see the bodies of dozens of other lawyers” killed and wounded shortly after arriving. He was about 200 meters (yards) away from where the bombing struck, he added.
The explosion occurred as over 100 mourners, mostly lawyers and journalists, gathered to accompany the body of Bilal Anwar Kasi, a prominent lawyer, who was shot and killed in the city earlier on Monday, an eyewitness said.
He said mobile phone jammers had been activated around hospitals in the area – a regular precaution after an attack – making it hard to contact officers on the ground to get updated information.
Balochistan has been witnessing ethnic violence and numerous attacks for years, with minority Shia and Hazara community in the province being the regular target of kidnapping and murders by extremist militants.
No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to senior police official Zahoor Ahmed Afridi, most of the dead were lawyers.
The explosion also injured at least 60 others, said Rehmat Baloch, the health minister of Balochistan province.
Police cordoned off the hospital following the blast, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif paying visits to the wounded on Monday evening.
He instructed local authorities in Baluchistan province, where Quetta is the capital, to maintain utmost vigilance and beef up security.
Former Balochistan Bar President Baz Muhammad Kakar was also fatally wounded in the attack, reports said.
_Jan. 30: A suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in southern city of Shikarpur kills 59 people.
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The spokesperson for the Jamaat-ul-Alhrar faction of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Ahsanulah Ahsan, in an email sent to journalists, claimed responsibility for the carnage in Quetta.
