Pakistan hospital attack ‘particularly appalling’ says Ban

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives’ vest amid the gathering, and survivors later described scenes of panic as the blast ripped through the emergency room.

Bilal Anwar Kasi was shot while on his way to the city’s main court complex, and the subsequent suicide attack appeared to target his mourners, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government said.

He says “our hearts go out to the families and other loved ones of the more than 60 killed, and we wish a speedy recovery to the dozens more injured”.

The military has since been deployed in and around the city’s hospitals.

According to police, the vehicle of the lawyer came under attack on the Manno Jan Road in the city. Ahsan’s group has been behind several attacks in Pakistan in recent years, including a deadly Easter Sunday bombing in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 70 people. The claim could not be independently verified.

Later, however, Islamic State said one of its fighters carried out the attack, in what would mark an escalation in the ability of the group, or its regional offshoots, to strike in Pakistan. Numerous victims were clad in the black suit worn by lawyers.

But in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, the streets were deserted.

Ban urged the Pakistani government to do its utmost to bring those behind the attack to justice. “These attacks will not weaken us but makes us even stronger”, Ali Zafar said. He says the blast was so powerful that they both fell down. He was about 200 metres away from where the bombing struck, he added.

Kasi died before he arrived at the hospital, and Kakar died in the explosion.

Several ethnic Baluch separatist groups operate in the resource-rich province, as well as al-Qaida, the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups.

Earlier, Pakistan’s powerful army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif also visited the hospital, and met with the wounded. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The Lawyers community has also announced to boycott proceedings of all courts in the province and black flags have been installed on buildings of Balochistan High Court and lower Courts.

No group has immediately claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.

Pakistani lawyers and security officials gather around the bodies of victims of a bomb explosion at a government hospital premises in Quetta on August 8, 2016.

Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial interior minister, denounced the attack as an “act of terrorism”. Sharif also asked health workers to provide the best treatment possible to those wounded in the attack. The blast took place shortly after the body of a lawyer killed in a shooting attack earlier in the day was brought in on Monday. This news story is related to Print/141217-Lawyers-observe-countrywide-protest-one-week-mourning-today/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne.

Another lawyer, Rehmatullah Khan, said he was missing his friends and colleagues.