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Pakistan: dozens dead as bomb hits mourners at Quetta hospital Pakistan: dozens dead as bomb hits mourners at Quetta hospital
(about 3 hours later)
Dozens of people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack claimed by a Taliban faction in the grounds of a government-run hospital in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta. At least 67 people have been killed and another 100 injured after a suicide bomb packed with ball-bearings tore through a crowded state-run hospital in the Pakistani city of Quetta, the capital of a region ravaged by insurgency and sectarian tensions.
The blast happened shortly after the body of Bilal Kasi, a prominent lawyer who was killed in a shooting earlier in the day, was brought to the hospital. Witnesses described horrific scenes as victims cried out for help, and survivors scrambled to flee past bodies lying scattered in the smoke-filled corridors .
Nearly 100 lawyers and other people had gathered at the hospital, and witnesses described horrifying scenes of bodies being scattered about and the wounded screaming out and crying for help. The death toll had risen to 63 by 4.05pm (11.05am GMT), according to the hospital director, Abdul Rehman, who also said 92 wounded people were being treated. The blast on Monday appeared to have been a deliberate attempt to target some of the Balochistan province’s most prominent lawyers, who had gathered at the hospital’s emergency department to mourn a colleague who shot dead earlier in the day in a separate incident. Bilal Kasi, the president of the Balochistan bar association, was targeted by two gunmen as he left his home for work.
Both attacks were claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a group founded two years ago after a split within the fragmented movement known as the Pakistan Taliban. It had claimed responsibility for a bloody attack in Lahore in March that killed 75. Jamat-ul-Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Riaz Ahmed, 74, a lawyer, had gone to the hospital with an assistant and his nephew to find out what had happened to Kasi when the blast occurred. Victims of the hospital bombing included relatives of Kasi and at least two journalists who had gone to the hospital to cover his death.
“I was near a wall and I fell down,” he said. “The wall protected me. My assistant and my nephew are injured and being treated. It was a miracle that I survived. Riaz Ahmed, a 74-year-old lawyer, had gone to the hospital with an assistant and his nephew to find out what had happened to Kasi when the blast occurred. “I was near a wall and I fell down,” he told the Guardian by phone. “The wall protected me. My assistant and my nephew are injured and being treated. It was a miracle that I survived.
“There was chaos after the blast, with body parts lying everywhere. It is hard to recognise the victims. Many of the injured are quite critical. Most of the dead are prominent lawyers.” “There was chaos after the blast, with body parts lying everywhere. It is hard to recognise the victims. Many of the injured are quite critical.”
Another lawyer, Jameel Ahmed, 48, said he headed for the hospital as soon as he heard that Kasi, a friend, had been shot dead. Another lawyer, Jameel Ahmed, 48, said he headed for the hospital as soon as he heard that Kasi, a friend, had been shot dead “I heard a loud blast, then a colleague of mine called me from hospital,” he said. “I have lost so many friends in a single attack. This is horrific. Many of those who have died were with me last night. We had dinner together and now they are all dead.
“I heard a loud blast, then a colleague of mine called me from hospital,” he said. “I have lost so many friends in a single attack. This is horrific. Many of those who have died were with me last night. We had dinner together and now they are all dead.
“I think the terrorists planned it so – they knew that lawyers would gather in large numbers at the hospital after the killing of Kasi, and so they sent a bomber to attack.”“I think the terrorists planned it so – they knew that lawyers would gather in large numbers at the hospital after the killing of Kasi, and so they sent a bomber to attack.”
Local TV stations broadcast footage showing people running in panic around the hospital grounds after the blast, which struck at the gates of the building housing the emergency ward. A Pakistani news channel reported that one of its cameramen was among the dead. Monday’s blast was the latest in a string of vicious attacks against lawyers in Balochistan, which is located in south-western Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. It has become a breeding ground of ethnic separatist insurgency, where the minority Shia and Hazra community have been targeted in the course of past decade. Two other lawers, Jahanzeb Alvi and Amanullah Achakzai were killed in August and in June respectively by unknown gunmen in the same city.
“Even in times of war, no one attacks a hospital,” said Sanaullah Zehri, the chief minister in Balochistan province, adding that the authorities would root out terrorists. The Quetta hospital attack was the second deadliest in Pakistan this year. In March, On Easter Sunday, 75 people were killed in a bombing targetting Christians near a bustling park in Lahore.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, denounced the attack and expressed his “deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives”. Attackers have previously used similar tactics seen on Monday to kill people mourning at a hospital. In 2012, an attack outside a Karaqchi hospital killed 13 people who had gathered for a victim of a separate attack on the same day.
He instructed authorities in Balochistan to maintain vigilance and step up security. He said no one would be allowed to disturb the peace that “countless sacrifices” by the security forces, police and the people of Balochistan had worked so hard to restore. In an emailed statement to journalists, Jamat-ul-Ahrar said the the group “will continue attacks in Pakistan till the establishment of Islamic system in the country”. Jamat-ul-Ahrar, is a breakaway faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and is based out of the tribal areas near Pakistan and Afghanistan border. Earlier in the day, Balochistan’s chief minister, Sanaullah Zehri, had blamed Indian intelligence apparatus of being behind the attack.
Kasi, who had four children, had been the president of the Balochistan Bar Association since 2014 and ran his own law firm in Quetta. Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, condemned the bombing, expressing “deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives” before he arrived in Quetta to visit the hospital.
Several relatives who accompanied his body to the hospital were killed in the blast. “We have lost at least eight cousins. This is a tragic time for our family,” said Zarak Khan Kasi, a cousin. “No one will be allowed to disturb peace in the province that has been restored due to countless sacrifices of security forces, police and the people,” he said in a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report “This is an absolutely senseless targeting of dozens of people, including patients and mourners,” said Champa Patel, Amnesty International’s director for south Asia. “It has led to a devastating loss of life, and is an example of the string of attacks in recent years in Pakistan on schools, hospitals and other ‘soft targets’, which must cease immediately.”
She added: “A full, independent and transparent investigation must be carried out into how and why this bombing took place, and whoever is responsible should be brought to justice as soon as possible in fair trials, without recourse to the death penalty.”
According to the Express Tribune, a major English-language Pakistani newspaper, a spokesperson for the Balochistan regional government said that the attack in hospital following Kasi’s killing appeared to have been “pre-planned”.
A spokesperson for the Pakistan army said on Twitter that the attack was aimed at undermining security in Balochistan in the light of China-Pakistan economic cooperation in the region.
The Quetta bomb disposal squad has issued a statement saying at least eight kilograms of explosives were used along with ball bearings, to inflict maximum damage. The official death toll stood at 67, while more than 100 were injured. Facebook activated its safety check in the aftermath of the attack, enabling users to notify friends about their situation.
A journalist with Pakistani television network Aaj News, Shehzad Ahmed, and Dawn’s Mehmood Khan, were among the victims. Dawn said in an article published on its website that Khan had risen to become a journalist from first working as a security guard at the media organisation years ago.
An AFP journalist, who was approximately 20 metres away from the blastescaped injury, but described horrific scenes in the aftermath of the attack. “There were pools and pools of blood around and pieces of human bodies and flesh ... people were beating their heads, crying and mourning. They were in shock and grief.”
Lawyers around Pakistan have announced a country-wide strike, and will not be attending courts on Tuesday. Pakistan’s chief of justice, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, also issued a statement condemning the attack.