At least 12 people have been killed after a suicide bomber struck outside the gates of a district court in Pakistan on Tuesday, detonating his explosives next to a police car, according to the interior minister.
The blast in the capital Islamabad, also wounded at least 27 people.
Later in the day, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, claimed responsibility for the attack, in messages to reporters from the group’s leader, Omar Mukkaram Khurasani.
However, an influential commander in the group, Sarbakaf Mohmand, sent messages denying any responsibility for the attack.
Authorities have struggled in recent months with a resurgent Pakistani Taliban, border tensions and a fragile ceasefire with neighbouring Afghanistan.
The explosion, which was heard miles away, came at a busy time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending hearings.
The attacker tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told journalists.
Earlier reports by state-run media and two security officials said a car bomb had caused the explosion.
Naqvi alleged that the attack was “carried out by Indian-backed elements and Afghan Taliban proxies” linked to the Pakistani Taliban.
However, he said authorities are “looking into all aspects” of the explosion.
Police quickly cordoned off the area around the court as a cloud of smoke rose into the sky following the blast.
“People started running in all directions,” said Mohammad Afzal, who was at the court at the time.
Naqvi said the discovery nearby of a severed head, which the police said belonged to the attacker, confirmed the blast was a suicide attack.
The attacker was also later spotted in CCTV footage from the site, he said.
Prime minister promises accountability
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack in Islamabad and called for a full investigation, according to a statement issued by his office.
He said those responsible must be brought to justice swiftly.
“We will ensure the perpetrators are apprehended and held accountable,” he said.
Sharif described attacks on unarmed civilians as “reprehensible” and added: “We will not allow the blood of innocent Pakistanis to go to waste.”
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said on X that the country is in a state of war and laid the blame with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which Islamabad accuses of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban.
Afghanistan “can act to stop terrorism in Pakistan, but bringing this war to Islamabad is a message from Kabul,” Asif said and warned that Pakistan “has the strength to respond fully.”
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is designated a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States and the United Nations.
The Afghan Taliban takeover in Kabul in 2021 emboldened the TTP and many of the group’s leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan.
Kabul denies it’s protecting the TTP.
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant attacks in recent years. The deadliest assault occurred in 2014 when a breakaway TTP faction killed 154 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar.
Afghanistan-Pakistan peace talks stall
Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have risen in recent months.
Kabul has blamed Islamabad for drone strikes on 9 October that killed several people in the Afghan capital and vowed retaliation.
The ensuing cross-border fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and militants before Qatar brokered a ceasefire on 19 October which remains in place.
Since then, two rounds of peace talks have been held in Istanbul, the latest on Thursday, but ended without agreement after Kabul refused to provide a written assurance that the TTP and other militant groups would not use Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan.
An earlier, brief ceasefire between Pakistan and the TTP, brokered by Kabul in 2022, later collapsed after the group accused Islamabad of violating it.