Pakistan mourns victims of hospital attack

Pakistan was in mourning on Tuesday after an attack targeting lawyers gathered at a hospital in Quetta killed at least 70 people.

A Pakistan Taliban faction and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) both claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.

The victims include 55 lawyers and at least two cameramen who had gathered at the Civil Hospital in Balochistan province to pay their final respects to another lawyer, Bilal Anwar Kasi, President of the Balochistan Bar Association.

Kasi was killed by gunmen just hours before the attack.

Schools, colleges, businesses and government institutions were closed in Balochistan, where the provincial government began a three-day mourning period.

To express solidarity with the victims, many of whom were lawyers, and their families, Pakistan’s legal fraternity will observe a countrywide, three-day boycott of courts on a call given by the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council.