QUETTA, Pakistan A bomb blast at a Pakistani hospital killed at least 10 people and wounded 30 in Quetta, the capital of the violence-plagued southwestern province of Baluchistan, on Monday, a senior provincial official said.
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In all, 70 people, majority lawyers, were killed by a suicide bomber at the hospital.
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.
A bomber blew himself up among a group of lawyers on Monday who were gathered outside the hospital to mourn a colleague who was shot dead earlier in the day, police official Zafar Iman Shah said.
But in what was likely an opportunistic statement, the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the Quetta attack later on Monday, though there have been instances of competing claims in previous attacks in Pakistan.
A journalist holds a poster bearing an image of a news cameraman killed in a suicide bombing during a rally to pay tribute to Quetta victims.
Earlier on Tuesday, 27 injured of the Quetta attack were brought to a Pakistan Air Force base in Karachi in a C130 aircraft.
Pakistani civil society activists light candles Peshawar, Pakistan to pay tribute to the victims of a bombing in Quetta, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Baluchistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri agreed with that analysis. Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has claimed responsibility for both Mr Kasi’s murder and the attack on his mourners, though the group has not made clear why lawyers were targeted.
Television footage showed scenes of chaos at the hospital in Quetta, with panicked people fleeing through debris as smoke filled the corridors.
Numerous dead appeared to be wearing black suits and ties.
“No one will be allowed to disrupt the peace of the province”, Sharif said. While lawyers in Lahore staged a protest wearing black armbands chanting slogans against terrorism. Sharif urged local authorities to maintain utmost vigilance and beef up security in Quetta.
Gen. Raheel Sharif, the powerful army chief of Pakistan, visited the Quetta Civil Hospital, and met with the wounded.
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Quetta has always been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there in the past.
