At least 29 people, including 14 female students, have been killed and dozens others injured in two attacks in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, Pakistani security and hospital sources say.

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 Quetta’s Bolan Medical Complex.

Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said that four gunmen were also killed during the siege of the emergency ward of the hospital that lasted for several hours and ended when the security forces stormed the building.

Nisar said that the security forces also freed 35 people who were taken hostage by the militants.

"As casualties were being brought to the hospital terrorists had taken position inside the hospital building," Nisar told reporters.

"They opened fire on administration and police officials who arrived at the hospital. One…bomber blew himself up in the hospital," he added.

The outlawed Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for Saturday’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.

On February 16, a bomb attack targeting Shia Muslims in the main bazaar of Quetta killed about 90 people, including women and children, and injured 200 others. According to the police, most of the victims were Hazara Shias.

On January 10, a twin bomb attack at a crowded billiard hall killed more than 90 people, mostly Shia Muslims, in Quetta.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the two bombings.

On March 1, former Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been involved in 80 percent of terrorist incidents in the country.


HK