At least 12 people were killed and several others injured in a suicide bombing outside a local court in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Tuesday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said.
According to officials and state-run media, a powerful car bomb exploded at the entrance of the District Judicial Complex. The attacker, who attempted to enter the court building on foot, detonated the explosives near a police vehicle after waiting outside for 10 to 15 minutes, Naqvi told reporters at the site.
“We are investigating this incident from different angles. It is not just another bombing. It happened right in Islamabad,” the minister said.
A hospital source said some of the wounded were in critical condition. The blast occurred near the main entrance of the court complex, an area usually crowded with litigants and lawyers.
Videos circulating on social media showed a car engulfed in flames and thick smoke rising behind a security barrier, Dawn reported. State-run Pakistan Television (PTV) confirmed the explosion was a suicide attack, noting that “the bomber’s head was found lying on the road.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
The bombing came just hours after Pakistani security forces said they had repelled an overnight assault by armed militants on a cadet college in Wana, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border.
Calling the Islamabad attack a “wake-up call”, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif described Pakistan as being “in a state of war.”
Posting on X, Asif wrote, “In this environment, it would be futile to hold out greater hope for successful negotiations with the rulers of Kabul.”
