Quetta attack:Taliban claim suicide bombing while ASWJ, LeJ also involed

A Pakistani Taliban faction Sipah e Sahaba, LeJ, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, ASWJ and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have  claimed responsibility for a suicide attack at a hospital in Pakistan's Quetta that killed at least 70 people.

Monday's attack targeted a group of mourning lawyers, who had gathered at the emergency department of the hospital to accompany the body of a murdered colleague.

"The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar takes responsibility for this attack, and pledges to continue carrying out such attacks. We will release a video report on this soon," the group's spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in an email.

ISIL, which is also known as ISIS, also claimed responsibility for the attack.

"A martyr from the Islamic State [of Iraq and the Levant] detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," the armed group's Amaq website said.

The blast happened at the gate of the emergency room in the morning. 

The lawyers were at the unit because earlier in the day armed men, who are still unidentified, had shot Bilal Anwar Kasi, reports said.

Gunfire followed the explosion at the government-run Civil Hospital in Quetta. Police said it was a suicide attack where eight kilogrammes of explosives were used. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

Kasi, who later died from his injuries, was the former president of the Balochistan Bar Association. He had been on his way to work when he was attacked.

Many of the dead appeared to be lawyers, wearing black suits and ties.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti said: "The blast occurred after a number of lawyers and some journalists had gathered at the hospital following the death of Bilal Anwar Kasi, the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, in a separate shooting incident early this morning."

Unfortunately in Balochistan from the last decade sectarian attacks are directed against the minority hazara community, whose members are Shia. In the resent years there has been a dramatic increase in the targeting of Hazaras, started with the killing of the chairman of Hazara Democratic Party in January 2009. In 2013 more than 357 people including women and children were killed and more than 1000 injured which were claimed by Lashar-e-Jangvi(LeJ) and ASWJ (Sepah e Sahaba)banned extremist Sunni( Deobandi) militant organization, and its offshoots named Jaish-ul- Islam and Jaish-e-Muhammad.

Molana Ramzan Mengal who is president of ASWJ in Quetta was involved in killing of hundreds of innocent people, including Shia Hazaras, security forces’ personnel and several other innocent people. He has been shifted to an unknown place for investigation. Baluchistan government has declared it a major success and has vowed to continue carrying out raids in entire Baluchistan, including Quetta.