Pakistan: Rivals Lay Claim to Quetta Hospital Attack
| Publisher | Jamestown Foundation |
| Author | Alexander Sehmer |
| Publication Date | 19 August 2016 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 17 |
| Cite as | Jamestown Foundation, Pakistan: Rivals Lay Claim to Quetta Hospital Attack, 19 August 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 17, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57bacb804.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Link to original story on Jamestown website
A suicide bomber blew himself up at Quetta's Civil Hospital in the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province on August 8, killing more than 70 people and injuring about 100 others. Many of those killed were lawyers who had gathered to protest the earlier killing of Bilal Anwar Kasi, the president of the Balochistan Bar Association. Also among the dead were journalists reporting on the lawyers' protest.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the bombing, as well as for Kasi's murder, but a few hours later Islamic State (IS) also stepped in to claim the bombing (First Post, August 9). Meanwhile, Balochistan's Chief Minister Sardar Sanaullah Zehri told local reports that India's intelligence service was behind the attack (Dawn, August 9).
Islamic State probably has the capacity to carry out such an attack through a Pakistani affiliate, and the rival claims cannot be verified. However, the more established Jamaat-ul-Ahrar - which briefly aligned itself with IS in 2014 before switching back to the TTP - has experience carrying out high-casualty attacks in Pakistan. It has masterminded several devastating blasts, including one at a crowded Easter celebration at a park in Lahore in which 72 people were killed (Express Tribune, March 27).
Some commentators have suggested the loss of so many legal experts in the Quetta attack could have serious repercussions at a local level, but why the group should specifically target lawyers is open to speculation. Professional groups have come under attack from Jamaat-ul-Ahrar in the past, notably health workers treating polio, who are sometimes portrayed by militants as part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslims (Dawn, April 21, Dawn, March 18, 2015). Possibly as a professional group lawyers are an obvious symbol of constitutional authority. The lawyers certainly feel they are under fire, boycotting the courts during a period of mourning in the aftermath of the attack and demanding greater protection (Dunya News, August 16).
However, the group's most frequent targets are the security forces and members of minority communities, a reflection of the sectarian hatreds harbored by many of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi commanders who make up its ranks (See Terrorism Monitor, July 22). Most likely, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar was focused more on the location - the bomb went off in a hospital, the kind of soft target the group favors - than on the profession of the blast victims.
