At least 31 people have been killed and 169 injured in a suicide bombing in Pakistan.
The blast ripped through a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Pakistan‘s capital Islamabad during Friday’s morning prayers.
Witnesses to the attack describe chaotic scenes with bodies lying on the Khadija Al-Kubra mosque’s carpeted floors and the wounded screaming for help.
Footage of the aftermath shows police and residents transporting the injured to nearby hospitals, with some in a critical condition.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion has fallen on militant groups including the Taliban and the Islamic State.
The organisations have been blamed for past attacks on Shiite Muslims, a minority in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s defence minister suggested that the Taliban was behind the attack, acting as a proxy for India. But India has rejected the allegation as “baseless”.
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Hussain Shah said he was praying in the mosque courtyard when he heard a sudden, loud explosion.
“I immediately thought that some big attack had happened,” he said.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and extended their condolences to the families of those killed.
“Targeting innocent civilians is a crime against humanity,” Mr Zardari said. “The nation stands with the affected families in this difficult time.”
Mr Sharif said he had ordered a full investigation, adding: “Those who are responsible must be identified and punished”.
Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on X that the mosque’s security guards tried to intercept the suspect, who opened fire and then detonated his explosives among the last row of worshippers.
He said the bomber had “been proven to have been coming and going from Afghanistan”. The minister also accused India of using “proxies” against Pakistan.
“The threads of the alliance between India and the Taliban are being uncovered,” he wrote. “The state will respond to this oppression with full force.”
But India’s foreign ministry hit back, saying in a post on X: “It is unfortunate that, instead of seriously addressing the problems plaguing its social fabric, Pakistan should choose to delude itself by blaming others for its home-grown ills.
“India rejects any and every such allegation, which is as baseless as it is pointless.”
Pakistan often accuses Afghanistan, where the Taliban seized power again in August 2021, of harbouring militants. But Afghanistan’s foreign ministry also denied involvement, condemning attacks on mosques as being against Islamic values.
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The bombing has overshadowed the return of the Basant kite flying festival in Pakistan following the lifting of an 18-year ban, with authorities announcing that a related concert in Lahore had been cancelled because of the attack.
Pakistan has struggled to rein in a surge in militant attacks across the country, especially in Balochistan province in the country’s southwest.
The country’s largest and poorest province was brought to a virtual standstill last Saturday when the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) launched a coordinated attack.
Its fighters entered schools, banks, markets and security installations and temporarily took over the desert town of Nushki.
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Security forces responded by killing at least 216 militants in a week-long operation that concluded on Friday.
Ethnic Baloch separatists have sought greater autonomy and a larger share of the region’s natural resources.
