Pakistan lawyers strike as dazed city mourns bomb victims

Pakistan's lawyers boycotted courts and staged protests nationwide Tuesday after a horrific suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital which killed 72 people including many of their colleagues.

Monday's bloodletting, with medics battling to save scores of injured amid scenes of carnage, left the southwestern city reeling.

Police stood guard 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 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.

Scores of lawyers held rallies in major cities including Islamabad, Karachi and Quetta Tuesday.

"It's very tragic. Our seniors who were our intellectuals have been killed and may God reward them in heaven," lawyer Ghulam Muhammad told AFP in Quetta.

Soldiers patrolled near-empty streets in the city, as most public transport shut down, with markets and schools closed in mourning.

In graveyards around the city tearful families laid their loved ones to rest beneath a scorching sun.

"What can I say about my brother? The whole city is gloomy over the loss of almost the entire leadership of the legal community," said Abdul Hameed, whose younger sibling Abdul Rasheed Khokhar was buried Tuesday.

In Islamabad and in Karachi, lawyers called for the authorities to protect civilians.

"This is not time only for weeping and crying and for lamenting, this is a time for practical steps," said Sheikh Asmuddin in the capital.

Pope Francis said he was "deeply saddened" by the attack, joining a chorus of international condemnation.

(AFP)