Bomb Kills 6 In Hospital In Pakistan

A bomb exploded in Pakistan’s only cancer hospital on Sunday, killing at least six people, injuring more than 30, and adding a grim twist to a personal and political feud that many Pakistanis believe could have a profound impact on the country’s future.

The bomb detonated in the city of Lahore at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Center, opened 16 months ago and dedicated to the memory of the mother of Pakistan’s former cricket captain, Imran Khan.

Khan, 43, has said in recent days that he is on the verge of starting a political movement to topple Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was a fellow student with Khan at Oxford University 20 years ago.

The blast occurred shortly after noon on Sunday, a normal working day in Pakistan, when about 150 patients and relatives were gathered at the sprawling hospital complex.

A correspondent for the BBC who reached the scene said the explosion left dead and wounded lying in pools of blood, with one outer wall of the hospital blown away.

Hospital officials said that the dead included two children who were patients and that 10 of the injured were in critical condition.

The incident came amid intensifying political violence in Pakistan. Khan, who gained widespread popularity among Pakistan’s 130 million people when his team won cricket’s world championship for the first time in 1992, has been sharply critical of the country’s feuding political class, which he has described as “a culture of corruption and injustice.”

Many of his criticisms have been aimed particularly at Prime Minister Bhutto, who Khan has accused of leading a government obsessed with political vendettas and self-enrichment.