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U.S. condemns attack at hospital in Pakistan: State Department

In a statement, Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar – a breakaway faction of the militant Taliban group – said its fighters killed Kasi and dozens of lawyers at the hospital.

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The bombing targeted a crowd made up mainly of lawyers and journalists who had gone to the hospital to mourn the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, who was shot dead on Monday. Neither claim could be independently verified. Most of the victims were lawyers who had gathered to mourn a prominent local lawyer was had been killed by gunmen earlier on Monday.

The Quetta hospital bombing was planned to inflict the maximum number of civilian casualties. Kasi was among the most outspoken lawyers in the province and was popular for campaigning for improvements in the lawyers’ community.

Afridi said the attacker hit shortly after Kasi’s body was brought in and that it seemed the two events were connected.

Many of those killed or wounded in the blast were lawyers, as well. “The bomber had strapped some 8kg of explosives packed with ball bearings and shrapnel on his body”, he said.

According to the reporter of 92 News, the video has also been acquired by security agencies, investigating the matter.

Waliur Rehman says he was taking his ailing father to the hospital’s emergency ward when the explosion shook the building on Monday.

Another witness, lawyer Abdul Latif, said he arrived at the hospital to express his grief over Kasi’s killing. The bomber killed dozens of people and wounded many others in an attack that struck a gathering of Pakistani.

Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial interior minister, denounced the attack as an “act of terrorism”.

Television footage showed scenes of chaos at the hospital in Quetta, with panicked people fleeing through debris as smoke filled the hospital corridors.

He says most of the victims of the bombing are lawyers.

But officials denied that was a turning point for the group, saying it is under heavy pressure in its eastern strongholds from U.S. airstrikes and an Afghan ground offensive.

Sharif added that “no one will be allowed to disturb the peace”, which “countless sacrifices” by the “security forces, police and the people of Baluchistan” have worked so hard to restore. Later Monday, the prime minister traveled to Quetta to meet the wounded and take a first look at the situation.

Gen. Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s powerful army chief, also visited the hospital, and met with the wounded.

The Pakistani bar association called for lawyers to boycott courts in an unusual strike against the attack.

The motive behind the attack was unclear, but several lawyers have been targeted during a recent spate of killings in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, which has a history of militant and separatist violence.

It was not immediately clear if the group had carried out the bombing, as it is believed to have claimed responsibility for attacks in the past that it was not involved in.

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It was the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan this year and the latest in a string of strikes on lawyers, seen by some militants as an extension of the state and so legitimate targets.

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