Pakistan says ‘India proxies’ behind Islamabad bombing: What we know so far
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has blamed India for the suicide attack that struck outside the district and sessions court building in Islamabad on Tuesday afternoon.
Pakistani Federal Minister for Interior Mohsin Naqvi said at least 12 people were killed, and hospital authorities confirmed more than 30 were wounded, including at least five in critical condition.
The blast occurred as Islamabad hosted several international conferences, and while sport events were also under way nearby. The Sri Lankan cricket team, which was attacked in March 2009 by gunmen in Pakistan, was playing a one-day international match in Rawalpindi, about 10km (6 miles) from the court.
The suicide attack marked a dramatic escalation of violence at a time when the military was focused on rescuing hundreds of cadets held by fighters in a separate incident at Cadet College in South Waziristan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghan border.
The assault on the college in Wana, the district capital, occurred a day earlier, when an explosives-laden car rammed the campus entrance. Security forces say at least 300 cadets have been rescued so far and that operations to free the remainder are ongoing.
On Tuesday, another bomb in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, injured at least 14 security personnel.
Sharif blamed India for both the Islamabad and Wana incidents without offering evidence. “Both attacks are the worst examples of Indian state terrorism in the region. It is time for the world to condemn such nefarious conspiracies of India,” he said.
Pakistani Minister of Defence Khawaja Asif, meanwhile, claimed on Tuesday night that the attacks were orchestrated from Afghanistan, at the behest of India. Pakistan and the Taliban-governed Afghanistan have been locked in an escalating spiral of tensions in recent years, which reached new highs in October after a series of border clashes.
The attacks in Pakistan came a day after a car explosion in New Delhi killed at least 13 people. Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah said on X that India would “hunt down each and every culprit behind this incident”.
Here is what we know so far about the Islamabad blast.
Where did the blast happen?
The suicide bomber struck after 12:30pm (07:30 GMT) at the entrance of the District Judicial Complex on Srinagar Highway, one of Islamabad’s main arteries.
Opened three years ago, the complex handles thousands of litigants and draws large numbers of lawyers daily. The complex has several gates, with a side entrance used primarily by judges and a main gate for litigants.
Key political and civic institutions – the Parliament, Supreme Court, and the offices of the president and prime minister – are about 15km (9 miles) away.
