Lawyers boycott court after Quetta church blast
The victims will be laid to rest at Gora graveyard today.
QUETTA (Dunya News) – A case against terror attack on Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta has registered today (Monday).
According to details, the metropolis is mourning over the blast that claimed lives of nine people while lawyers have also boycotted the judicial proceedings and hoisted black flag on the court room. Sources told that the victims will be laid to rest at Gora graveyard today.
Earlier, at least nine people, including two women, were killed and 57 sustained injuries when suicide bombers attacked Bethel Memorial Methodist Church located on Quetta’s Zarghoon Road.
An explosion took place initially and was followed by a gunfight. Police, Frontier Corps personnel, Anti-Terrorism Force (ATF) and Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) were immediately dispatched to the scene. The area was cordoned off and a search and rescue operation was carried out.
The Home Minister said that at least four militants targeted the church. He told that police intercepted and shot one bomber outside but the second attacker managed to reach the church’s main door where he blew himself up. Two others fled the scene as the personnel tightened noose on them. However; none of them succeeded in entering the church building.
The minister said about 250 people usually attend the church on Sundays, but attendance had swelled because it was close to Christmas.
In 2016, Lahore suffered one of Pakistan’s deadliest attacks during the Easter season -- a suicide bomb in a park that killed more than 70 people including many children.
Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is the largest of the country’s four provinces but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long argued they do not get a fair share of its vast gas and mineral wealth.
Efforts to promote peace and development have reduced the violence considerably in recent years.
