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Pakistan Church condemns Quetta hospital bombing

The spokesperson said that the U.S. condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks in Quetta, including the murder of Balochistan Bar Association president Bilal Anwar Kasi in the bombing at the Civil Hospital that killed dozens of Pakistanis and wounded many others.

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Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Sanaullah Zehri on Monday announced three-day mourning in the province following the suicide blast that went off at Quetta’s Civil Hospital.

Quetta blast: People carry dead bodies of victims in a bomb blast in Quetta, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016.

The bombing was also claimed by the regional branch of the Islamic State, according to the Amaq news agency, which is affiliated with the militant group.

The blast took place following a number of lawyers and some journalists amassed at the hospital after the death of Bilal Anwar Kasi, the president of the Balochistan Bar Association. Former Balochistan Bar President Baz Muhammad Kakar was injured in the attack.

Many lawyers had rushed to the hospital in response to the news of the shooting, while media outlets sent reporters to cover the scene there. The attack injured more than 100 people.

Senior police officer Zahoor Ahmed Afridi said a suicide bomber struck shortly after Mr Kasi’s body was brought in, adding that the two attacks appeared to be linked. The Pakistan Army spokesman said in a tweet that the attack was “specially targeting China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an ambitious Dollars 46 billion project to build a corridor that will also pass through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir”.

A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, said it was behind the bombing. Waliur Rehman said he was taking his ailing father to the emergency ward when the explosion shook the building, knocking them both to the ground.

“No one will be allowed to disturb the peace of the province”, he said in a statement. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level security meeting in Quetta yesterday and ordered all state security institutions to respond with full might to eliminate terrorists.

“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. Sharif asked the local authorities to maintain utmost vigilance and beef up security in Quetta.

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Hospitals have been targeted by militants previously.

At least 20 people were wounded in the blast according to reports