Witnesses described horrifying scenes of bodies scattered on the ground and the wounded screaming out for help.
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And by attacking the entrance to a hospital emergency room those responsible took their rightful place on the lowest rung of humanity’s ladder.
The suicide blast came shortly after the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association was shot and killed on his way to work Monday. Kasi was among one of the most outspoken lawyers in the province and had campaigned for improvements in the legal community.
“It seems it was a pre-planned attack”, he said.
It is the second deadliest attack in Pakistan this year so far, after a bombing in a crowded park in Lahore over Easter killed 75. They also admitted to being responsible for the killing of Mr Kasi. He was about 200 meters (yards) away from where the bomb struck, he added.
“Lawyers are relatively more vocal against militancy and they are fighting cases against people accused of terrorism, so it would make sense that they are being targeted”, said, according to the Huffington Post.
Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri said RAW was behind the blast and the enemies would be chased out and arrested.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned the bombing and directed the provincial government to ensure the attackers are found and punished to the full extent of the law. A Pakistani news channel reported that one of its cameramen was also killed in the blast.
The lawyers were at the unit because earlier in the day armed men, who are still unidentified, had shot Bilal Anwar Kasi, reports said.
Lawyers shout slogans against the suicide bomb attack at a hospital in Quetta, during a protest in Lahore on August 8, 2016. Sharif urged local authorities to maintain utmost vigilance and beef up security in Quetta.
The explosion severely damaged the casualty ward at the hospital, requiring the people injured in the blast to be transferred to neighboring hospitals for treatment. He cancelled all prior commitments and visited Quetta.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks in Quetta”, the US State Department Spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau said during a press briefing in Washington.
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Pakistan Bar Council in a statement said, “Lawyers throughout the country will boycott court proceedings in protest against the killing of lawyers in Quetta yesterday”.
