UN chief condemns Pakistan attacks

NEW YORK - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Friday “strongly condemned” the bomb attacks in which scores of people were killed this week in Pakistan’s cities of Quetta and Lahore.

A suicide bomb ripped through a procession of Shiite Muslims in south-western Pakistan Friday, killing 58 people and injuring more than 100, government officials said.

The bomber detonated his explosives in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, as thousands of Shiite Muslims celebrated al-Quds Day, a day the Arab and Muslim world mark every year to express solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem.

Wednesday, dozens of people died when a Shiite procession in Lahore was attacked.

“These attacks, which deliberately targeted Shiite Muslims and killed or injured scores of civilians, are unacceptable,” Ban said in a statement.

Ban expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Pakistan.