At least 31 people were killed and 169 others injured in an explosion at a Shia mosque in the Tarlai Kalan area of Islamabad during Friday prayers, officials said.
Islamabad’s deputy commissioner Irfan Memon confirmed the casualty figures, adding that emergency measures have been imposed at major hospitals in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Security forces cordoned off the site as investigators gathered evidence from the scene.
Police indicated that the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated explosives after being stopped at the mosque entrance. Witnesses reported hearing gunfire as two attackers approached the mosque, with a brief exchange between mosque guards and the assailants before the explosion. One attacker was reportedly hit by gunfire before detonating his vest.
Eyewitnesses described chaos at the scene, with injured worshippers lying across the mosque compound and locals rushing victims to hospitals. Mosque caretaker Syed Ashfaq said, “Bodies were lying everywhere, some missing arms or legs. We transported the most critically injured in our own vehicles.”
The Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, condemned the attack, calling it “a crime against humanity” and expressing solidarity with the victims’ families.
In response to the attack, 25 ambulances were dispatched to Islamabad, and all hospitals across Rawalpindi District were placed on high alert, with specialist surgical teams on standby, according to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif.
The blast occurred amid ongoing discussions of a potential military operation in Pakistan’s Tirah Valley along the Afghan border, though the government has not officially confirmed the operation. Relations with the Afghan Taliban have been tense, and Pakistan recently reported returning over one million Afghan nationals across the border in the past year.
Last year saw a sharp rise in militant-related deaths across Pakistan, with militants accounting for more than half of the fatalities, according to an independent think tank report.
The attack in Islamabad follows a series of high-profile militant incidents, including a suicide attack in November last year at district courts that killed 12 people, and coordinated assaults in Balochistan in which security forces said they killed more than 200 militants.
Authorities are continuing the investigation into the cause and perpetrators of Friday’s blast.
With inputs from BBC