Pakistan mourns Quetta blast victims

TIL Desk/World/Islamabad/Quetta-Lawyers in Pakistan boycotted courts and staged protests against the killing of their colleagues as a shocked nation mourned the death of 70 people in a horrific suicide bombing at a hospital in restive Balochistan province. The national flag flew at half-mast as the government announced a national mourning.

A suicide bomber yesterday struck 200 lawyers who had gathered outside the emergency ward of civil hospital in Quetta after a senior lawyer was shot dead, killing at least 70 people, including 40 lawyers. The attack also left close to 150 people injured. Taliban’s Jamaatul Ahrar faction and Islamic State extremists claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan Bar Council in a statement said, “Lawyers throughout the country will boycott court proceedings in protest against the killing of lawyers in Quetta yesterday.” The lawyers boycotted all courts in the country while observing mourning for their colleagues. They held demonstrations in major cities including Islamabad, Karachi and Quetta wearing black arm bands and chanted slogans against terrorism. In Quetta, all businesses were closed to mourn the victims.