Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

At Least Seventy Killed in a Suicide Attack in Pakistan | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55356049
Caption:

First responders and volunteers transport an injured man away from the scene of a bomb blast outside a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan August 8, 2016.
REUTERS/NASEER AHMED


Islamabad- Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban group, said it had carried out the attack in Quetta which killed 70 people. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar sent an e-mail to the media threatening of carrying out more attacks. Hours earlier, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, also. Usually, armed groups in Pakistan race to claim responsibility for huge attacks.

The bomber struck as a crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists crammed into the emergency department at Quetta Hospital to protest against assassination of head of Pakistani Bar Association. At least seventy were killed and around 200 were injured in one of the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan since March 2016. Moreover, a surgeon said that death toll is more likely to rise due to critical conditions of some injured people.

ISIS claimed responsibility for attacks in Pakistan before but this is its first time to announce carrying out a suicide attack in Baluchistan, an environment full of armed groups and extremists.
“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 Baluchistan,” a statement from the PM House quoted the Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.

In general, aggression relapsed to a huge extent since mid of 2014 military operations when the army sacked the armed from tribal zones.

The Pakistani Bar Association said lawyers across the country would hold a one-day strike in all courts and spend a week in mourning.