At least 12 people were killed and dozens others injured after a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a district court in Pakistan’s capital on Tuesday, the country’s interior minister said.
The explosion, powerful enough to be heard from miles away, tore through an area packed with vehicles and visitors outside the district court, shattering windows and damaging several cars, local reports said. At least 27 people were also reportedly wounded in the attack.
The blast struck during one of the court’s busiest hours, when hundreds typically gathered for hearings.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters on Tuesday that the attacker tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle”.
A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, later claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We are probing what kind of blast it was. It is not clear yet. We will be able to provide more details after we get a report from our forensic team,” the local police spokesperson earlier said.
The blast triggered panic among those present, sending people running for cover, local reports said.
Local media aired disturbing visuals from the scene, showing bloodied victims lying near a damaged police van, according to Reuters. However, it was unable to independently verify those images.
Authorities have cordoned off the area as bomb disposal experts comb through debris for evidence.
Security has reportedly been tightened around key government and judicial buildings in the capital.
In a separate incident, Pakistani security forces on Tuesday said they thwarted an overnight attempt by militants to storm an army-run cadet college in Wana, near the Afghan border, where attackers had allegedly planned to take students hostage.
The assault began Monday evening when a suicide car bomber and five other Pakistani Taliban fighters targeted the facility, according to the Associated Press.
Two militants were killed early in the clash, while three others were trapped inside an administrative block as troops, including army commandos, carried out a clearance operation that continued into Tuesday, the news agency reported.
The Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which has ties to Afghanistan’s Taliban, denied involvement in the attack and a breakaway faction, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, later claimed responsibility.
In another incident, at least 16 members of Pakistan’s security forces were wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack targeting a convoy in the restive northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to an official.
Officials said the convoy, comprising personnel from the Pakistan Army and the Frontier Corps, was returning from Loni Post in Dera Ismail Khan district when the roadside bomb detonated in Loni village late Monday night.
Separately, the Pakistani army reported that security forces killed at least 20 Taliban militants in two operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday.
Meanwhile, investigations into the Islamabad court explosion are ongoing.
