ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban claimed a suicide bombing that killed at least 12 people in Islamabad on Tuesday, a rare attack by the group on the country’s capital. The first such attack to hit the city in years sent people fleeing in panic, leaving shattered glass and charred vehicles on the road outside district court buildings. “Judges, lawyers and officials who carried out rulings under Pakistan’s laws were targeted,” the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) said, threatening more attacks in the country.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said 12 people were killed and 27 wounded when the assailant detonated explosives near a police vehicle. A lawyer at the scene, Mohammed Shahzad Butt, said there was a “massive blast”. “Everyone started running inside out of panic. I have seen at least five dead bodies lying at the front gate,” he said.
The prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, earlier accused the TTP and others from the country’s Balochistan region, both of whom have carried out attacks mostly on security forces. Islamabad has largely been spared major militant violence in recent years, with the last suicide attack occurring in December 2022. — AFP
