QUETTA, August 8: Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Sanaullah Zehri on Monday announced three-day mourning in the province following the suicide blast that went off at Quetta’s Civil Hospital. The attack killed at least 63 people and left countless injured. Many of the dead were lawyers and journalists who had earlier gathered to cover a protest over the murder of Balochistan Bar Association president Bilal Anwar Kasi. Talking to media, CM Balochistan said there is evidence that the Indian spy agency RAW for all the terrorist activities in the province and said that it is actively involved in destabilizing Pakistan by funding the terrorists.
He said that he has convened a high-level meeting regarding 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 at first President of Balochistan Bar Association was gunned down after which a suicide attack was carried out on the mourners.
On the other hand, Supreme Court Bar Association President Ali Zafar has declared seven-day mourning by the lawyer’s fraternity. While talking in a press conference, he said that lawyers in Balochistan were facing security threats from a long time period but no adequate arrangements were made for their safety.
He urged that the government should also provide security to the lawyers the same way it is given to the judges and politicians. Ali Zafar also told the reporters that the lawyer’s fraternity is calling an emergency meeting to create a long-term security strategy for themselves.
The blast is the second deadliest in Pakistan this year so far, after a bombing in a crowded park in Lahore over Easter killed 75. ANP provincial spokesperson has confirmed seven-day mourning in protest against Quetta blast.
Pakistani hospitals have been targeted by militants previously. In 2010 a bomb killed 13 people outside the casualty department of a hospital in Karachi in Sindh province, where victims of an earlier attack were being treated as anxious relatives gathered. -DNA
- Latest
- Trending
