File photo shows flames rising from a car at the site of a bomb blast in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta.
Over 50 people have been killed in two successive bombings that ripped through a billiards hall in the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan Province.
According to senior police officer Hamid Shakil, the twin blasts went off about 10 minutes apart in the city of Quetta late Thursday evening, killing 57 people and injuring more than 100.
Police officer Mohammed Murtaza said the second bomb caused the building to collapse, adding that many of the dead and wounded were Shia Muslims.
The incident comes hours after a separate bomb attack killed 11 people in a crowded commercial area of the city.
Anti-Shia militant groups have been engaged in a violent campaign against Shias over the past few years.
Hundreds of Shia Muslims were killed across Pakistan last year. The attacks targeted many doctors, engineers, high-ranking government officials, teachers, and politicians.
Human rights groups in Pakistan have vehemently criticized the government for its failure to stem the rising tide of violence against the country’s Shia Muslims.
Shias make up almost 20 percent of the country’s 176-million-strong population.
TE/HMV
