An outlawed Pakistani Sunni militant outfit calling itself the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has claimed responsibility for Saturday's bus bombing and the subsequent attack on a hospital treating the injured in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, according to the local media.
Saturday's bomb attack on a bus belonging to the Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University in Quetta, capital of the volatile Balochistan province, had killed at least 14 female students. Almost an hour after the explosion, a group of armed militants attacked the hospital treating survivors of the bus bombing.
At least eleven people, including the attackers, were killed in a prolonged gun battle between security forces and militants at the hospital. Security forces eventually stormed the building, killing the militants and freeing their hostages.
Pakistani media reported on Sunday that Abubakar Siddiq, claimed to be an LeJ spokesman, called newspaper offices in Quetta late on Saturday to claim the killings. He said the bus bombing was carried out by one of LeJ's female members, and added that the group's fighters launched the subsequent attack on the hospital.
"The suicide attack on the bus was carried out by one of our sisters. She boarded the student bus and blew herself up. Then we carried out a second suicide attack at the hospital and our fighters killed several people," Siddiq was quoted as saying by the local media.
The LeJ, an al-Qaeda-linked group, is closely associated with other Sunni militant bands in the country like the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and the Jaish-e-Muhammad. It has carried out several such attacks on the minority Shia community of Pakistan in recent years, including a couple of deadly bomb attacks on the Hazara Shia community in Quetta.
The hardline Sunni extremist groups regard Shias as non-Muslims. Attacks on Pakistan's minority Shias by Sunni militant groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban have increased significantly in recent years, particularly in Balochistan.
In addition to the strengthening Sunni insurgency, Balochistan province has been home to an armed separatist movement for decades, with the insurgents fighting for greater political autonomy for the region as well as a bigger share of its vast mineral resources.
The restive province is said to have large untapped deposits of oil, gas, copper and gold. In addition to the armed separatist movement, Balochistan has also been witnessing frequent attacks by Taliban militants as well as several instances of sectarian violence in recent months.
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