A bombing on about 10am local time, on Monday, August 8, 2016 at a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan has killed 75 people, officials say.
According to an Al Jazeera report, the suspected suicide bombing occurred where a group of lawyers gathered to mourn a colleague who was shot dead earlier in the day, officials said.
The Civil Hospital is one of the biggest in the city of Quetta, capital of capital of Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan.
Mohammed Omar Baloch, health secretary of Balochistan, said at least 75 people were killed in the suicide blast. He added that there were fears that the death toll could rise further, as more than 50 others were wounded in the attack.
Police and government officials said a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive close to a large group of lawyers who had gathered to mourn their colleague, Bilal Kasi,head of the provincial bar association. Mr. Kasi’s body had been taken to Civil Hospital after he was killed by gunmen earlier on Monday.
The hospital’s courtyard was strewn with blood-soaked bodies after the blast, video footage from the scene showed. Victims, clad in the black suits that lawyers typically wear, lay in pools of blood. Others who had survived, shocked and bleeding, were struggling to stand, the video footage showed.
Bystanders and hospital staff rushed away some of the wounded on stretchers and others hugged each other and wept, the footage showed. At least one news cameraman, who went to the hospital to report on Mr. Kasi’s assassination, was among the dead, his employer, the TV station Aaj News, confirmed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The death toll from the blast was high even by the grim standards of terrorist violence in Pakistan, though there have been fewer attacks over the past two years as a result of military operations.
“I was on duty inside the hospital when I heard a loud explosion. We ran out to see what happened. There were dead bodies everywhere,” a man identifying himself as a hospital worker told Pakistan’s Express News channel.
Rahmat Baloch, the provincial health minister, said staff at Civil Hospital were overwhelmed and several of the wounded were moved to other hospitals. Mr. Baloch said hospital equipment and infrastructure was damaged by the explosion, which made caring for the wounded difficult.
Sanaullah Zehri, chief minister of Balochistan province, said the attack appeared to be well planned.
“The terrorists first targeted the lawyer, and they knew the body would be brought to the hospital, even if he was only wounded, and people will gather,” said Mr. Zehri. “That’s where the suicide bomber blew himself up.”
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned Monday’s bomb attack, and ordered increased security in Balochistan.
“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 of Balochistan,” Mr. Sharif said in a statement.
The attack on the hospital has been described as “heartless”, with citizens asking where patients would be taken to, if hospitals are no longer spared from such attacks.
Imran Khan, a Pakistani politician, described the act as cowardly, saying hospitals are spared in war.
Condemnable cowardly terrorists strike Quetta targeting bar president then civil hospital. Even in war hospitals not delib targeted.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 8, 2016
Hattip to WSJ, The Cable
