Suicide blast claimed by Taliban faction in Pakistan claims at least 64 lives

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomb blast in southwestern Pakistan tore through a mourning ceremony led by lawyers honoring a colleague shot dead earlier Monday, killing at least 64 people in an attack claimed by a Taliban-linked group.

Hours after the attack, a breakaway faction of the Taliban in Pakistan asserted responsibility for the blast and the earlier slaying of the lawyer in Quetta, the Associated Press reported, citing a statement by Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group.

The group has been behind several acts of terrorism in Pakistan in recent years. The latest claim could not be independently verified.

Quetta, the capital of the Baluchistan region near the border with Afghanistan, has been used as a base for Afghan Taliban leaders and a staging ground for arms and supplies across the border. In May, a U.S. drone strike in Baluchistan killed Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.

Abdul Rehman, the director at the Civil Hospital in Quetta, said Monday’s bombing killed at least 64 people, mostly lawyers. He said they were also treating nearly 100 wounded, raising the possibility that the death toll could further rise.

Witnesses described a horrific scene at the hospital with bodies scattered everywhere.

The attack came as more than 100 mourners crowded the hospital emergency department to accompany the body of lawyer Bilal Anwar Kasi to the cemetery. Kasi had been shot and killed earlier Monday while on the way to the court house, part of a recent string of killings targeting lawyers.

Anwar ul Haq Kakr, a spokesman for the local government told the Reuters news agency he believed the attack was aimed at the mourners. “It seems it was a pre-planned attack.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sherif has condemned the blast, expressing his “deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives.”

Baluchistan has long been plagued by a separatist insurgency, sectarian tension as well as rising criminal violence.

It is also seen as a center for the Afghan Taliban, which has held several meetings there.
 

In recent years, Pakistan has been hit by attacks claimed by the Taliban and other militant groups. In Quetta, a bombing in a Shiite area in Janary 2013 killed more than 80 people.

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