A suicide bomber detonated a powerful bomb on Monday, August 8, at the emergency room of the government-run Quetta Civil Hospital in Quetta City in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province; killing at least 53 people, mostly lawyers and journalists. The death toll is expected to rise as over 50 others were wounded in the blast.
As per NBC News, the bombing occurred shortly after the body of a prominent lawyer, who was shot and killed earlier in the day, was taken to the emergency room. A senior police officer said the slain lawyer, Bilal Anwar Kasi, former president of the Balochistan Bar Association, was on his way to work when he was shot.
The suicide bomber attacked when around 100 people, mostly lawyers and journalists, gathered at the emergency department of the hospital to accompany the body of Kasi, according to a journalist who survived the blast.
Provincial Health Minister Rehmat Saleh Baloch said “there are many wounded, so the death toll could rise.”
“It seems it was a pre-planned attack,” he said.
nvestigators are trying to determine if the killing of the prominent lawyer and the suicide bombing attack were related. So far, no group have claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued a statement expressing his “deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives” in Monday’s attack. He ordered Baluchistan authorities to maintain utmost vigilance and to beef up security.
A video of the aftermath of the bombing can be viewed here (WARNING: Graphic content).
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