Islamic State and a faction of Taliban has claimed responsibility of the attack that occurred in a hospital in the city of Quetta in Pakistan on Monday leaving around 70 dead and over 110 injured.
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The explosion came as some 200 lawyers along with journalists had gathered at the Civil Hospital to mourn the fatal shooting of a top provincial lawyer, with witnesses describing horrific scenes as medics battled to save scores of wounded.
Almost 100 lawyers had come to the hospital in the heart of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, after the body of their colleague, prominent attorney Bilal Kasi was brought there. Schools and markets were closed in Quetta, also in protest over the attack, which was claimed by a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group. The latest victim, Bilal Anwar Kasi, was shot and killed while on his way to the city’s main court complex, senior police official Nadeem Shah told Reuters. Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif visited CMH Quetta and also attended a high level security meeting.
Zehri said it appeared to be a suicide attack but police said they were still investigating. Several ethnic Baluch separatist groups operate in the resource-rich province, as well as al-Qaida, the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups.
“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”, Hale said in a statement issued by the US Embassy.
Local TV stations broadcast footage showing people running in panic around the hospital grounds. Sharif asked the local authorities to maintain utmost vigilance and beef up security in Quetta. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.
Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) on Monday called for a nationwide strike on August 9 and one week of mourning after the attack which left over people, including president of Balochistan Bar Association, dead.
“It was a well coordinated and planned suicide attack with the aim to cause maximum damage”, he said. Quetta has always been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there in the past.
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Lawyers across Pakistan denounced the killings in Quetta.
