TV journalist among 8 killed in suicide attack in Pak

A suicide bomber struck a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta,killing at least eight persons,including a TV journalist and two policemen,and injuring 35 others.

A suicide bomber on Friday struck a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta,killing at least eight persons,including a TV journalist and two policemen,and injuring 35 others.

The attacker blew himself up when a large number of people gathered outside the emergency ward of Quetta’s Civil Hospital to protest the killing of a member of the minority Shia community.

The Shia man identified as Arshad Zaidi,son of a prominent leader,was shot outside a bank and was shifted to the Civil Hospital who later died of wounds in hospital.

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A large number of Shia religious leaders,protesters,policemen,reporters and TV cameramen were outside the hospital when the suicide attacker detonated his explosives at around 10.15 am.

Malik Arif,a cameraman for Samaa news channel,and two policemen were among the dead. A reporter for the channel said Arif’s body was blown to pieces and his head severed. The reporter said he had also seen another severed head.

Four policemen,including a Deputy Superintendent of Police and four journalists,were among the injured,witnesses said. Geo TV reported that its reporter Salaman Asharf was also injured in the attack.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (investigation) Qazi Abdul Wahid confirmed that eight persons were killed and 35 others injured. He said the attack was apparently carried out by a suicide bomber and was “sectarian” in nature.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Security had been beefed up across Quetta and police were conducting raids to trace the bomber’s accomplices,Wahid said.

TV channels beamed dramatic footage of people running out of the hospital complex after the blast as a cloud of dust rose into the sky.

The explosion was followed by heavy firing though it could not immediately be ascertained who had opened fire.

The blast blackened the walls of the hospital and shattered windows. People carried the injured away from the site of the explosion.

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Police said that a member of the National Assembly Agha Nasir and his four guards were also injured in the blast.

Nasir,who belongs to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party,went to hospital to meet relatives of the Shiite victim.

Witnesses said they had seen body parts lying strewn in the hospital compound. Hospital officials described the condition of seven of the injured as serious.

Quetta and other parts of Balochistan province have witnessed several attacks on members of the Shia community and non-Baloch people over the past year.