From Our Own Correspondent: A Targeted Profession
Shaimaa Khalil examines the backdrop to the 8 August bombing of a Quetta hospital, which killed over scores le including dozens of lawyers. But why them - and why there?
As a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ correspondent in Pakistan, Shaimaa Khalil's grown accustomed to terror alerts and the aftermaths of bomb and gun attacks. But the 8 August bombing of a hospital in Quetta was far outside the national norm - and it specifically targeted lawyers who'd gathered there to mourn the assassination of a colleague. Quetta is the main city of Baluchistan, a restive region in Pakistan's southwest with its own separatist movement - and a recurrent source of concern for the country's central government. It's also afflicted by criminal cartels and several religiously-inspired armed groups. So what is really going on?
Photo: Pakistani lawyers shout slogans against the killing of their colleagues a day after suicide bombing at the Civil Hospital in Quetta, during a protest in Islamabad on August 9, 2016. / AFP / AAMIR QURESHI (Photo credit should read AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Thu 18 Aug 2016 15:23GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa