Suicide bomber kills scores in Pakistan
August 8, 2016
A suicide bomber in Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province killed scores and injured dozens more in an attack on a hospital that appeared to be coordinated with the deadly shooting earlier in the day of a prominent regional lawyer.
At least 70 people were killed, most of them lawyers, and at least two journalists also died in the bomb blast. The attacker had laden his device with ball bearings and shrapnel.
Reports of the number of wounded fluctuated considerably, with at least 50 more apparently injured in the blast.
Gathering to mourn the death of a colleague is common in Pakistan, and it appears the shooting and the suicide bombing were coordinated, according to Zahoor Ahmed Afridi, a local senior police officer.
"It was a suicide attack," Afridi said. He added that the attacker struck shortly after Kasi's body was brought to the hospital and that it seemed the two events were connected.
An AFP journalist was about 20 meters (22 yards) away when the bomb went off.
"There were huge black clouds and dirt," he said. "I ran back to the place and saw dead bodies scattered everywhere and many injured people crying. There were pools and pools of blood around and pieces of human bodies and flesh."
He said nurses and lawyers wept as medics from inside the hospital rushed out to help the wounded.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack.
He expressed his "deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives," he said. "No one will be allowed to disturb the peace in the province that has been restored thanks to the countless sacrifices by the security forces, police and the people of Baluchistan."
Sharif was to visit Quetta and the hospital on Monday.
Ali Zafar, the head of the country's main lawyers' association, condemned the blast as "an attack on justice." He said lawyers will observe three days of mourning.
The region has been racked by violence, perpetrated by an array of separatist and militant groups, including al-Qaida.
bik/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters, PTI, dpa)