Khan says dozens of lawyers and journalists were present inside the hospital when the bomb went off.
Advertisement
At least 46 dead bodies were taken in to Quetta’s Civil Hospital, the clinic that was bombed, Police surgeon Noor Baloch told dpa.
120 other people were injured in the blast, some critically.
Video footage showed lawyers rushing with stretchers to help the wounded. The charred bodies of victims lay in pools of blood.
Mr Sharif expressed his “deep grief and anguish”, adding: “No-one will be allowed to disturb the peace of the province”.
“Many observers have said that this particular attack, the way it was carried out, where it was carried out – is another level of violence”, Khalil says.
Pakistani police have said earlier they suspect the bomb was detonated by a suicide attacker.
A Taliban splinter group has claimed responsibility for a deadly explosion at a Pakistani hospital. The attack targeted a group of lawyers in the emergency room, and they were a large portion of the casualties. The European Union said in a statement that there was “no justification for such acts of terrorism”.
The slain lawyer Bilal Kasi was president of Balochistan Bar Association who got killed when some unknown gunmen opened fire on his vehicle when he was on his way to office at Manno Jan area of Quetta.
Pakistani police have raised the death toll from a hospital bombing in the southwestern city of Quetta and are now saying that there are 42 killed.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif and PM Nawaz also arrived in the Civil Hospital and inquired about the health of those wounded in the attack.
Gunfire was heard shortly after the explosion.
Pakistan is grimly accustomed to atrocities after a almost decade-long insurgency.
“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”, said American Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale in a statement. A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in the middle of the lawyers and other men and first reports indicate that over 70 were killed and more than 100 injured.
In Quetta, senior attorney Mohammad Ashraf stood with colleagues in an open area outside a court building where they had often gathered for breaks with numerous lawyers who were killed Monday.
Advertisement
Baluchistan province is used to violent and indiscriminate attacks by insurgents.
