Twelve people were killed and 27 injured on Tuesday (11/11) in a suicide attack outside a court in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack that occurred in the country’s capital.
According to Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, someone detonated an explosive device at around 12:30 p.m. (4:30 a.m. in Brasilia), near a police vehicle.
Hours later, the Pakistani Taliban, an armed group that espouses the same ideology as the Taliban in Kabul and regularly attacks Pakistani security forces, claimed responsibility for the attack.
“On Tuesday, one of our members attacked a court in Islamabad,” the group said in a statement sent to reporters. The text adds: “Attacks will be carried out against those who issue rulings based on non-Islamic laws, against those who implement them, and against those who protect them, until Sharia prevails throughout the country.”
The attack raises fears of an escalation between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which witnessed a week of violent clashes last October.
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Facing a wave of attacks against its security forces, Islamabad wants assurances from Afghanistan that it will stop supporting the Pakistani Taliban, which Kabul denies protecting.
The two countries agreed to a fragile truce, the details of which they were unable to determine during several rounds of negotiations, and threatened to resume hostilities in the event of an attack on their lands.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif described the attack as a “wake-up call” and stressed that “in this context, it would be futile to expect any success in negotiations with the Kabul leadership.”
American researcher Michael Kugelman commented on the “X” social website that the Taliban “threatened to attack Islamabad (through the insurgents) in response to Pakistani air strikes in Afghanistan. The stability of South Asia is increasingly threatened.”
The explosion caused chaos throughout the court. According to eyewitnesses, a loud explosion was heard and the vehicles caught fire. Security forces cordoned off the area, which includes several government offices.
Attack inside the country
Islamabad is considered a relatively safe city compared to the rest of the country, with the last such attack occurring in December 2022.
The Interior Minister indicated that the suicide bombing in the capital occurred one day after an attack on a school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (northwest of the border with Afghanistan).
The minister said on Tuesday that “three people were killed in this attack, and the attacker was an Afghan,” accusing “Afghanistan of direct involvement.”
In turn, the Taliban Foreign Ministry expressed, on Channel X, its “deep sadness” and “strongly condemned the explosion that occurred in the capital, Islamabad, as well as the attack on the school.”
Clashes occurred between Pakistan and Afghanistan in mid-October, especially along the border between the two countries, but the conflict spread to Kabul, where other attacks occurred. More than 70 people were killed, including about 50 Afghan civilians, according to the United Nations.
Tensions are also high with India – another neighboring country and a historic enemy of Pakistan – following a brief war in May that left more than 70 people dead on both sides until a ceasefire was reached.
Read more reports like this on the RFI website, a partner of Capitals.
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