Quetta, July 10 (Reuters): A Pakistani provincial minister has resigned over an attack last week on a Shia mosque in Quetta in which 53 people were killed, saying police were responsible for a lapse in security.

“After such a big incident morally there is no justification for me to remain as home minister any more,” Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, a minister in Pakistan’s Baluchistan provincial government, said. He said he had handed his resignation two days ago to the provincial government, and it was accepted yesterday.

Last week’s grenade and gun attack in the southwestern city of Quetta, the worst in Pakistan for years, also injured more than 60 people. The three attackers all died. Shias in Quetta, provincial capital of Baluchistan, have accused the police of failing to provide adequate security at the mosque. Provincial authorities removed four senior police officers after the incident.