ISLAMABAD: A police officer was killed, while four suspects were arrested in a series of overnight raids conducted by police following a deadly suicide bombing in Islamabad, officials said on Saturday, with Daesh (Islamic States) claiming responsibility for the attack.
Officials said 31 people died in the blast at the Imam Bargah Qasr-e-Khadijatul Kubra mosque in the Tarlai Kallan area on Islamabad’s outskirts on Friday, with scores more being treated for injuries.
The blast occurred at Friday prayers, when mosques around the country are packed with worshippers, with Daesh saying one of its militants had targeted the congregation by detonating an explosive vest.
Late Friday, Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement agencies conducted a raid in the northwestern district of Nowshera, which led to a shootout with suspects linked to Friday’s bombing, leaving one officer dead.
“Assistant Sub-Inspector Ejaz Khattak was martyred, while ASI Aman Sher and Constable Hazrat Ali were injured when police carried out a raid on militants linked to the Islamabad blast,” Nowshera police spokesperson Turk Ali Shah told Arab News, adding more details regarding the arrests would be released by federal authorities.
A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the law enforcers had arrested four suspected facilitators of the suicide bomber.
“We have taken four people suspected to be linked to the Islamabad bombing into custody,” the official told Arab News, adding that the arrestees were “being interrogated to ascertain their exact role in the bombing.”
On Friday evening, Tallal Chaudhry, Pakistan’s state minister for interior, blamed the suicide attack on militants “sponsored by India and supported by Afghanistan.”
“He is not an Afghan national, but details of how many times he traveled to Afghanistan have been obtained,” Chaudhry said, declining to reveal the identity of the bomber.
Islamabad has long accused Kabul of allowing its soil to be used by militant groups and New Delhi of backing their cross-border attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces. The Afghan and Indian governments have consistently denied the allegations.
India also issued a statement on Friday, condemning the attack and condoling the loss of life while calling Islamabad’s accusation against it “as baseless as it is pointless.” The Afghan Taliban government also condemned the attack in a statement issued by its foreign affairs ministry.
Friday’s attack came amid a renewed surge in militant violence in Pakistan and followed a suicide bombing outside a district court complex in Islamabad in November last year that killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens, underscoring growing security concerns even in heavily guarded urban centers.
“Be assured that the previous terrorists and their handlers involved in Islamabad attacks were arrested and are being dealt with according to the law,” Chaudhry told reporters, reassuring that those responsible for the mosque blast would also be arrested.
