Faction of Pakistani Taliban Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claims attack, Baloch CM blames RAW; over 100 hurt.
A Taliban suicide bomb packed with ball bearings tore through a Pakistani hospital Monday 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. More than 100 were wounded, officials said.
Video footage showed bodies strewn on the ground, some still smoking, among pools of blood and shattered glass as shocked survivors cried and comforted one another.
Many of the victims were clad in the black suits and ties traditionally worn by Pakistani lawyers. An AFP journalist was about 20 metres 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.”
Nurses and lawyers wept as medics from inside the hospital rushed out to help dozens of injured, he said.
“People were beating their heads, crying and mourning. They were in shock and grief.”
Pervez Masi, who was injured by pieces of flying glass, said the blast was so powerful that “we didn’t know what had happened”.
“So many friends were martyred,” he said. “Whoever is doing this is not human, he is a beast and has no humanity.”
The police confirmed the attack was a suicide blast.
“The bomber had strapped some eight kg of explosives packed with ball bearings and shrapnel on his body,” bomb disposal unit chief Abdul Razzaq told AFP.
A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for the blast, with a spokesman vowing more attacks “until the imposition of an Islamic system in Pakistan”.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has also said it was behind the deadliest attack in Pakistan so far in 2016, a bombing in a crowded Lahore park that killed 75 people on Easter Sunday.
“The death toll has risen to 70 and there are 112 injured,” the head of the provincial health department, Dr Masood Naush-erwani, said Monday.
Aaj television cameraman Shehzad, Dawn News cameraman Mehmood Khan and ex-BBA president Muhammad Kakar were among those killed in the incident, and Dunya News cameraman Faridullah among the injured people.
Balochistan chief minister Sanaullah Zehri had blamed Indian agency Research and Analysis Wing for Quetta bombing.
Mr Zehri said there is evidence that RAW was directly involved in the attack. Announcing a three-day mourning period for the victims of the attack, the Balochistan CM said the terrorists would be taken to task.
He said he had convened a high-level meeting regarding the law and order situation. “No one attacks hospitals in war, the terrorists didn’t even spare them,” he said, adding that under a planned conspiracy, first the president of Baloch-istan Bar Association was gunned down, after which a suicide attack was carried out on the mourners.
Officials said mobile phone jammers had been activated around hospitals in the area — a regular precaution after an attack — making it hard to contact officers on the ground to get updated information. The crowd, mainly lawyers and journalists, had gone to the hospital after the death of the president of the Balochistan Bar Association in a shooting earlier Monday, said provincial home secretary Akbar Harifal. Bilal Anwar Kasi was targeted by two unidentified gunmen as he left his home for work.
