Photo: AP

At least 63 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a suicide bombing Monday at a government-run hospital in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, the Associated Press reports. The bomber targeted a gathering of lawyers who had come to mourn their colleague, the prominent attorney Bilal Kasi, who was shot and killed earlier in the day.

Kasi, the president of Baluchistan Bar Association, was assassinated on his way to the city’s main court complex. No group has taken responsibility for the subsequent suicide attack. According to Reuters, at least 50 people were wounded in addition to those killed.

The province, which has major oil and natural gas resources, borders Iran and Afghanistan and is wracked with sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, a separatist insurgency, and Islamist militancy—the Afghan Taliban found safe haven there in the past. Agence France Presse reports:

An AFP journalist said he was approximately 20 metres (65 feet) away when the explosion occurred.

“There were huge black clouds and dirt,” he said.

“I ran back to the place and saw dead bodies scattered everywhere and many injured people crying. There were pools and pools of blood around and pieces of human bodies and flesh.”

Nurses and lawyers wept as medics from inside the hospital rushed out to help dozens of injured, he said.

“People were beating their heads, crying and mourning. They were in shock and grief.”

The head of the country’s main lawyers’ association, called the bombing “an attack on justice.” In a statement, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed “deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives.”

“No one will be allowed to disturb the peace in the province that has been restored thanks to the countless sacrifices by the security forces, police and the people of Baluchistan,” the statement continued.

One of the wounded, Pervez Masi, told AFP that the explosion was so powerful and disorienting that “we didn’t know what had happened.”

“So many friends were martyred,” he said. “Whoever is doing this is not human, he is beast and has no humanity.”