Dozens killed in Pakistan hospital attack
A suicide bomber strikes a hospital in Quetta, killing at least 74 people in another devastating attack on civilians in the weary city.
ISLAMABAD — A suicide bomber struck a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Monday, officials said, killing at least 74 people in another devastating attack on civilians in a city that has become a byword for massacre and struggle over the past decade.
Before the bomber attacked, dozens of lawyers had gathered at the hospital to condemn the shooting death of a prominent colleague early Monday, officials said. They feared that the death toll would rise further, given the vast crowd of people seriously wounded in the attack.
Late Monday evening, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for both attacks.
“Our attacks will continue till the imposition of the Islamic system in the country,” the statement of responsibility read.
The bombing also was claimed by the regional branch of the Islamic State, according to the Amaq news agency, which is affiliated with the militant group. If confirmed, that would be a first for the group in Pakistan — though the claim may be related to the fact that in the past, the Jamaat-ul Ahrar splinter group has expressed support for the Islamic State.
Even as militant attacks have been down sharply across Pakistan as a whole in the past two years, Baluchistan province, where Quetta is the main city, remains a violent place apart.
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.
Quetta’s Hazara minority, which is mostly Shiite, has been targeted over and over by Sunni extremist groups like Lashkar-eJhangvi. Political tensions between ethnic Pashtun and Baluch leaders have been another source of conflict. Furthermore, the Afghan Taliban’s leadership is based in Quetta, and infighting, militant-driven assassinations and kidnappings have scarred the city.
At the same time, Baluchistan is one of the most forbidding environments for journalists. Foreign reporters are routinely barred from visiting, and local journalists in the province have been killed or intimidated in great numbers, according to human rights groups.
The bombing Monday came hours after the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association, Bilal Anwar Kasi, was gunned down by unknown attackers. Local news reports said that he was killed by men on a motorcycle as he was on his way to court. As news of Kasi’s death spread through Quetta, dozens of lawyers went to Civil Hospital, where his body had been taken for an autopsy.