A powerful car bomb exploded at the entrance of the sprawling district judicial complex in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, killing at least 12 people and injured 27 others outside a court building.
The blast came at a time when the area is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending court hearings.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi, confirmed that the bombing at the Islamabad District Judicial Complex was suicide attack. He disclosed that a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a police vehicle outside the gate of a district court in Islamabad that led to the killing of at least 12 people.
The Interior Minister told reporters that the attacker tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle.”
He did not blame any armed group but added that authorities are “looking into all aspects” of the attack. Naqvi said that police investigators have confirmed the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion came just hours after Pakistani security forces said that they thwarted an overnight attempt by armed combatants to storm a cadet college in Wana, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border.
The authorities blamed the Pakistani Taliban, which is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, but the group denied involvement in that attack on Monday evening.
The attack started when a bomber tried to storm the cadet college in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. The area had until recent years served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida and other foreign militants.
According to Alamgir Mahsud, the local police Chief, two of the militants were quickly killed by troops while three militants managed to enter the compound before being cornered in an administrative block.
Mahsud said that the army’s commandoes were among the forces conducting a clearance operation and an intermittent exchange of fire went on into today. The administrative block is away from the building housing hundreds of cadets and other staff.
The Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, have become emboldened since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, and many of the group’s leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan.
In a post on X, Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Khawaja Asif said that the country was “in a state of war,” adding that the attack should be taken as a “wake-up call.”
“In this environment, it would be futile to hold out greater hope for successful negotiations with the rulers of Kabul.
“The rulers of Kabul can stop terrorism in Pakistan, but bringing this war all the way to Islamabad is a message from Kabul, to which – praise be to God – Pakistan has the full strength to respond.”
Khawaja Asif
Blast At Islamabad District Judicial Complex Denounced
Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari condemned what he described as a “suicide blast” near the Islamabad District Judicial Complex.
According to a post on the President of Pakistan’s official X account, President Asif Ali Zardari expressed deep condolences with the bereaved families, “prayed for early recovery of the injured, and paid tribute to law enforcement agencies.”
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant attacks in recent years. The deadliest assault on a school occurred in 2014 when Taliban gunmen killed 154 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar.
