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At least 12 people have been killed in a suicide blast in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, as the defence minister said a deadly surge in terror attacks had put the country in a “state of war”.
The explosion, which was described as a suicide attack by several government ministers, took place outside the district court buildings in Islamabad on Tuesday at about 12.30pm. The area is usually heavily crowded with lawyers and litigants attending trials.
The interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, confirmed that 12 people had been killed in the attack and 27 were wounded. Naqvi said the bomber had tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle”.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. “We are investigating this incident from different angles. It is not just another bombing,” added Naqvi.
Videos of the incident showed a blackened car that had been targeted by the bomber. Witnesses described hearing a loud bang and seeing bodies lying on the floor near the court complex.
“It was complete chaos, lawyers and people were running inside the complex. I saw two dead bodies lying on the gate and several cars were on fire,” Rustam Malik, a lawyer, told Agence France-Presse.
The attack came as Pakistan is facing a deadly and destabilising rise in attacks by Islamist and separatist militants that has thrown the country into its worst security crisis in more than a decade.
The Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have carried out more than 600 militant attacks this year – mostly in the region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan – leaving hundreds dead. Pakistan’s government has accused the Afghan Taliban of giving a safe haven and armed support to TTP fighters, a claim that Kabul denies.
Last month, the accusations led to deadly clashes erupting along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which left dozens dead. The two countries remain in fragile ceasefire talks that so far have failed to reach any agreements over the handling of cross-border terrorism.
Pakistan is also facing a lethal surge in the decades-long separatist insurgency in Balochistan, the region bordering Iran and Afghanistan. Baloch militants, who are fighting for a separate state, have carried out dozens of increasingly sophisticated attacks in recent years, including the high-profile hijacking of a passenger train earlier this year.
The defence minister, Khawaja Asif, called Tuesday’s suicide attack a “wake-up call” to the terror threats the country was facing on multiple fronts.
“We are in a state of war. Anyone who thinks that the Pakistan army is fighting this war in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and the remote areas of Balochistan, today’s suicide attack at the Islamabad district courts is a wake-up call,” he said.
Asif said the suicide attack also put in doubt whether the peace talks with the Afghan Taliban would yield any results. “In this environment, it would be futile to hold out greater hope for successful negotiations with the rulers of Kabul,” he said.
