ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Friday it had identified the suicide bomber responsible for an attack on a mosque on the outskirts of the capital that killed at least 31 people, with the government saying the incident was carried out by militants sponsored by India and supported by Afghanistan.
The explosion took place during Friday prayers in the Tarlai area, a densely populated suburb of the capital, with hundreds of worshippers inside the mosque. Islamabad’s district administration said 169 people were also injured, several of them critically.
The attack comes amid a renewed surge in militant violence in Pakistan and follows 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.
Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan’s minister of state for interior, told reporters at the blast site, an imambargah, or a place of worship for the Shi’ite Muslim community, that the attacker had been identified as a suicide bomber following forensic analysis.
“We have now received information about the terrorist who carried out the suicide bombing here,” Chaudhry said. “He is not an Afghan national, but details of how many times he traveled to Afghanistan have been obtained.”
He said investigators were trying to piece together more evidence, though he added he could not share some of the information at this time.
Chaudhry accused neighboring countries of backing militant violence in Pakistan, saying the attack followed a familiar pattern.
“Those who carried out the attack are the same [groups that are] sponsored and supported by our neighbors, sponsored by India and supported by Afghanistan,” he added.
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. However, the Afghan and Indian governments have consistently denied the allegations.
India also issued a statement during the day, condemning the attack and condoling the loss of life while calling Islamabad’s accusation against it “as baseless as it is pointless.”
However, Chaudhry said the authorities had also detained militants and their facilitators in the past who were linked to earlier attacks in the capital, as he pledged to do the same again.
“Be assured that the previous terrorists and their handlers involved in Islamabad attacks were arrested and are being dealt with according to the law,” he continued, adding those responsible for targeting the mosque would also be arrested.
No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Rescue teams reached the scene within minutes, Chaudhry said, and an emergency was imposed at major hospitals, including the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Polyclinic Hospital and the Capital Development Authority Hospital.
Chaudhry said the attackers had deliberately targeted civilians.
Islamabad has generally been less affected by militant attacks than Pakistan’s northwestern and southwestern regions, but the scale of the casualties has heightened concerns about security in the capital amid a broader resurgence of violence nationwide.
