Pakistani Taliban Group Claims Hospital Bombing That Killed 70

Balochistan government spokesman Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar said the province’s schools would also remain shut on Tuesday “to mourn the loss”.

Ninety-two people were wounded in the explosion, according to Civil Hospital director Abdul Rehman. Most of the victims were lawyers who had gathered to mourn a prominent local lawyer was had been killed by gunmen earlier on Monday.

Almost 200 lawyers were being treated at different hospitals in the city, Iqbal said, some with critical injuries. Neither claim could be independently verified.

ISIS claimed responsibility for attacks in Pakistan before but this is its first time to announce carrying out a suicide attack in Baluchistan, an environment full of armed groups and extremists.

Journalists in Lahore hold candles during a rally to pay tribute to their colleagues who were killed in Monday’s suicide bombing in Quetta.

“The claim of responsibility by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar is more credible”, said Muhammad Amir Rana, head of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.

“No crater found at the site of the attack and it appears the bomber had the explosives strapped to his chest”, a police officer said.

Ali Zafar, the top leader of Pakistan’s main lawyers’ association, denounced the bombing as “an attack on justice”. Over 100 others were injured when a suicide bomber detonated himself inside the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital. The blast was so powerful that they both fell down, he said.

Witnesses described horrifying scenes of bodies being scattered about and the wounded screaming out and crying for help.

The crowd, mainly lawyers and journalists, had gone to the hospital after the death of the president of the Balochistan Bar Association in a shooting earlier Monday, said provincial home secretary Akbar Harifal. His comments about the RAW link came even before the police could say who was responsible for the horrific attack.

Pakistan is grimly accustomed to atrocities after a almost decade-long insurgency.

Legendary Pakistan cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan also expressed his dismay at the attack on a hospital.

Lawyer Jameel Ahmed, 48, said he went to the hospital after hearing about Mr Kasi, adding that he thought the plan was to ensnare lawyers.

People comfort each other following a deadly bomb blast at a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan.