Death toll from Pakistan bomb blasts rises to 120

Funerals for victims of a series of bombings in Pakistan were taking place today, as the death toll rose to 120.

Three days of mourning have been declared after one of the deadliest single days of terrorism in the country.

Five more victims wounded in the blast at a snooker hall in the city of Quetta died overnight. It took the number of people killed in that attack to 86, Pakistani police said.

The snooker hall was in a mainly Shia area of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province in south-west Pakistan. It was first targeted by a suicide bomber, then a car bomb exploded minutes later in the same area. Among those killed by the second blast was local rights activist Irfan Ali, who had reportedly been helping those hurt in the first blast.

Resident Ghulam Abbas said: “The second blast was a deafening one, and I fell down. I could hear cries and minutes later I saw ambulances taking the injured to the hospital.” Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group with strong ties to the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier in the day, a bomb hidden in a bag went off near a vehicle carrying paramilitary soldiers in a commercial area of the city, killing 12 people and wounding more than 40.

It had been spotted by a resident but was detonated by remote control before soldiers could react. The attack was claimed by separatist group the United Baluch Army. Meanwhile, in the city of Mingora in north-west Pakistan, a bomb in a crowded Sunni mosque killed 22 and wounded more than 70.

Baluchistan is struggling with sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias. Hazara Shias, who migrated from Afghanistan more than a century ago, have been the targets of dozens of attacks by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Quetta over the past year.

The province has also faced an insurgency by nationalists who demand greater autonomy and a larger share of the country’s natural resources. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion in Mingora, in the Swat Valley. The army drove the Taliban out of Swat in 2009, but militants still carry out attacks, including the shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, 15.