http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010416681216329.html
Friday, April 16, 2010
14:14 Mecca time, 11:14 GMT
Deaths in Pakistan hospital blast
The bomber struck outside a hospital emergency ward
in Quetta in the middle of a media briefing [AFP]
At least eight people have been killed and another 35 wounded after a
suicide bomber attacked a hospital in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
A television cameraman and a police officer were among those killed on
Friday when the attacker detonated his explosives outside the gate of the Civic
Hospital's emergency ward.
The chief of police in Quetta told Al Jazeera that a full investigation
into Friday's attack was under way.
Family members of a bank manager, who had been shot dead in the early
hours of the morning, had gathered outside the hospital before the blast
occurred.
The emergency room was full of his friends and relatives when the bomber
struck at the gate, Mohammad Sabir, a police official, said.
Zahir Shah Kazmi, a senior police officer who was briefing reporters at
the hospital about the attack on the bank executive, was killed in the bombing.
The dead cameraman worked for Samaa TV, a Pakistani television station.
Several journalists also present at the scene were wounded.
The bank manager came from a prominent Shia family. An armed man shot him
as he stepped out of his car outside the bank on a major city road, officials
said.
Sectarian violence
Pakistan, and Quetta in particular, has a history of sectarian violence
between extremist groups from the minority Shia and majority Sunni Muslims.
Several of Pakistan's Sunni extremist groups also are allied with the
Taliban and al-Qaeda, who view Shia Muslims as infidels.
In a separate incident on Friday, a suspected US missile attack killed
four suspected fighters in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, officials said.
The alleged missile attack took place in the Torkhel area in North
Waziristan, a tribal region filled with al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters focused
on attacking US and Nato soldiers across the border in Afghanistan.
At least four suspected fighters were killed, Noor Ahmad, a Pakistan
government official, said.
The exact identities of the dead were not immediately known.
The US has frequently targeted North Waziristan in its campaign to kill
al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders using missiles.
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