UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned Saturdayâ„¢s terrorist attacks in southwest Pakistan in which at least 29 people, including 14 female students, were killed.
Å“The secretary general strongly condemns the attacks today in Quetta,” the UN spokesperson said in a statement issued late on Saturday.
Å“He deplores the heinous nature of the attacks on a university bus carrying women students and educators and a hospital facility,” the statement added.
The UN chief said no cause justifies such violence, and noted with dismay that Å“violence against women and educators has increased in recent years, the aim being to keep girls from attaining the basic right to education.”
Heavily armed militants bombed a bus carrying female university students in Quetta, the capital of the Balochistan province, on Saturday afternoon, leaving 14 students dead and 19 others wounded.
About 90 minutes later, the militants attacked the hospital in the city treating survivors from the bus bombing, killing 11 more citizens and injuring 17 people.
Nurses, hospital security personnel and a senior city official were among the killed in the standoff between the attackers and security forces at Quettaâ„¢s Bolan Medical Complex.
The outlawed Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for Saturdayâ„¢s massacre in Quetta.
The group was founded in 1996 by Riaz Basra after he broke away from Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan over differences with his superiors.
GJH/AS
This article originally appeared on: Press TV