Banaras Khan—AFP
At least 13 people injured in attack that comes days after devastating suicide attack.
A roadside bomb apparently targeting a judge injured at least 13 people in Quetta on Thursday, officials said, days after a major attack killed many of the city’s senior lawyers.
“The bomb was planted on a bridge in the city, which went off immediately after the vehicle of an Islamic court judge passed by it,” said Akbar Harifal, the home secretary of Balochistan province.
The judge, Zahoor Shehwani, survived, he added, but the blast hit his security escort vehicle, injuring four police personnel and nine passersby.
Hamid Shakeel, a senior local police official, confirmed the attack and the casualties.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came three days after a devastating suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital killed at least 73 people, many of them senior lawyers.
Analysts said Monday’s attack had left a vacuum in the close-knit legal community, which is seen as a crucial force for justice in the country’s most dangerous province.
Both the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State group claimed Monday’s attack, with analysts unclear on whose claim was more credible.