Bombings Cause Massive Casualties in Pakistan - East Idaho News
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Bombings Cause Massive Casualties in Pakistan

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GETTY W 11113 PakBombing?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1357897536439BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images(ISLAMABAD) — Scores of people were killed and wounded Thursday when bombs were detonated in two separate explosions at a snooker hall in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.

Authorities put the casualty count at 86 dead and more than 100 injured although the death and injury tolls could wind up running much higher.

The Sunni extremist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, took responsibility for the twin bombings that targeted Shiite Muslims in what was an apparent attempt to spur sectarian violence in Pakistan.

According to police, the first explosion took place inside the hall where snooker, a game with cues on a billiard table, is played.

As police, rescue workers and onlookers rushed to the scene, a second more powerful explosion occurred, killing and injuring even more people.

It’s believed the first blast was caused by a suicide bomber while the second was a car bomb.

The attacks in Quetta came hours before dozens of people were killed and wounded in an explosion at a preaching center near Mingora, the main town in what was once the peaceful Swat Valley.

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