QUETTA, Pakistan — Hours after a prominent lawyer was gunned down in Pakistan, more than 70 people were killed in a bombing at the hospital where his body was taken.
The explosion at a hospital in Quetta on Monday also injured 112 others, said Rehmat Baloch, the health minister of Balochistan province in the western part of the country.
Many of those killed in the blast were believed to be lawyers and journalists who had gathered at the hospital to mourn and report on the death of lawyer Bilal Kasi, who had been gunned down earlier in the day.
Pakistani journalists hold candles during a rally to pay tribute of their colleagues who were killed in a suicide bombing in Quetta, in Lahore on August 8, 2016.
A Taliban suicide bomb packed with ball bearings tore through a Pakistani hospital on August 8 and killed at least 70 people, as witnesses described tearful staff rushing towards the smoking blast site to help the wounded. The bomber struck a crowd of some 200 people gathered at the Civil Hospital in the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta after the fatal shooting of a senior local lawyer earlier in the day. / AFP / ARIF ALI (Photo credit should read ARIF ALI/AFP/Getty Images)
The explosion at 9:30 a.m. local time (12.30 a.m. ET) rocked the emergency ward of the civil hospital, Sarfaraz Bugti, Home Minister of Balochistan, told CNN.
“It was a scene of utter horror and devastation in the courtyard hospital,” Wall Street Journal reporter Saeed Shah told CNN’s Max Foster from Islamabad. “There were bodies strewn everywhere, bleeding lawyers trying to get up.”
Pakistan’s Tehreek-i Taliban (TTP), also known as the Pakistan Taliban, has claimed responsibility for both the hospital blast and Kasi’s death. Kasi was the president of the Balochistan Bar Association.
“This brutal and senseless attack on civilians, so many of them lawyers working to bring justice to their country, will not undermine one of the most important pillars of Pakistan’s democracy and civil society,” said American Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale in a statement.
‘Utmost vigilance’
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif condemned the blast, saying, “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.”
The prime minister said in a statement that he has directed authorities to “maintain utmost vigilance” and that the country has boosted security for members in the legal fraternity as well as for the rest of society.
Legendary Pakistan cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan also expressed his dismay at the attack on a hospital.
Pakistan Taliban vows to continue attacks
Tehreek-i Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said the group had targeted Kasi. Suicide bombers also attacked lawyers and journalists at the hospital, said Ihsan, who vowed that such attacks would continue.
The group was also responsible for a suicide blast in an amusement park in Lahore earlier this year that killed 69 people.
“The Pakistani Taliban are known for their extremely bloody attacks,” said CNN’s Sophia Saifi in Islamabad. “They were responsible for the deadliest attack in the country earlier this year when a children’s amusement park was targeted. They’re known for targeting soft targets — churches, amusement parks, and now we see a hospital where lawyers were killed.
“These victims were the young creme de la creme of this country — the doctors, the lawyers, the journalists and cameramen who have lost their lives today in a horrific attack.”
