Pakistani Lawyers Go On Strike After Dozens Killed In Attack

At least 63 people were killed in a blast at a hospital in northwestern Pakistan, a regional official said.

In January, a suicide bomber killed 15 people outside a polio eradication centre in an attack claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and Jundullah, another Islamist militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State in the Middle East.

On Monday, lawyers congregated at the Quetta Civil Hospital to mourn the death of their colleague, Baluchistan Bar Association president Bilal Anwar Kasi, who had been fatally shot earlier that day on his commute to work.

Witnesses described horrifying scenes of bodies scattered on the ground and the wounded screaming out for help.

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. Kasi was among one of the most outspoken lawyers in the province and had campaigned for improvements in the legal community.

Zehri said it appeared to be a suicide attack but police said they were still investigating.

“It seems it was a pre-planned attack”, he said. “What kind of weak and despicable people are they, targeting a hospital where there are children and patients?”

A journalist holds a poster bearing an image of a news cameraman killed in a suicide bombing during a rally to pay tribute to Quetta victims.

“We can not but express our shock and concern over the terror attack that happened near a private hospital in downtown Quetta that left a large number of casualties”, the foreign ministry said. The national flag flew at half-mast as the government announced a national mourning.

The blast destroyed the emergency and casualty departments. “There were bodies everywhere”, he said.

Bodies lay scattered across a hospital courtyard shortly after the blast and pools of blood collected as emergency rescuers rushed to identify survivors. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level security meeting in Quetta yesterday and ordered all state security institutions to respond with full might to eliminate terrorists.

Chief Secretary Balochistan Saifullah Chatha briefed the Prime Minister on the situation.

Army Chief General Raheel Sharif visited the Civil Hospital and inquired about condition of the persons under treatment there.

The motive behind Monday’s attacks, however, was unclear.

For more than a decade, Baluchistan, a rugged and resource-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, has been wracked by a separatist war, ethnic and sectarian violence, and militant intrigue.

Hospitals have been targeted by militants previously.