Pakistan’s lawyers boycotted courts and staged protests nationwide on Tuesday after a horrific suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital which killed 72 people including many of their colleagues.
Police stood guard on Tuesday at the Civil Hospital, where the bomb tore through a crowd of some 200 lawyers who had gathered there the previous day to mourn the fatal shooting of a colleague. Officials said on Tuesday the death toll had increased to 72, with more than 100 injured.
Both the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State group have asserted responsibility for the attack, though neither claim has been verified by Pakistani authorities.
The IS claim, if true, would make it the group’s deadliest attack so far in Pakistan, where it has struggled for purchase.
