An attacker opened fire at the gates of a Shiite Muslim mosque in Islamabad on Friday before detonating a suicide bomb that killed at least 31 people in the deadliest assault of its kind in the capital in more than a decade.
An emergency was declared as hospitals began receiving the wounded, with authorities issuing urgent appeals for blood donations. Pakistan’s interior ministry said the attacker opened fire before detonating the device after being challenged by security guards at the mosque entrance.
Officials said more than 170 people were wounded after guards confronted the bomber as he tried to enter the Khadija Tul Kubra Imambargah compound on the city’s outskirts.
Images showed bodies on the carpeted floor, shattered glass across the hall and worshippers scrambling for help.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed “deep grief” over the attack and called for a thorough investigation and the swift identification of those responsible. President Asif Ali Zardari described the targeting of civilians as a “crime against humanity”.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif suggested India and Afghanistan were behind the attack, claiming the attacker had travelled to and from Afghanistan.
India’s foreign ministry rejected the allegations as “baseless”, condemned the attack and expressed condolences for the loss of life, according to an official statement.
Pakistan’s minister of state for interior Talal Chaudhry later said the suspect was not an Afghan citizen, according to local media.
The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility in a statement released through its media channels, identifying the alleged attacker as “Sayf Allah al-Ansari”. The claim could not be independently verified.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack in the “strongest terms”, calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.
According to conflict monitor ACLED, the blast was the deadliest suicide attack in Islamabad in more than a decade and bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State.
Shiites, a minority in Pakistan, have repeatedly been targeted by Islamic State and the Sunni Islamist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. While bombings in the capital remain rare, officials have warned of rising militant activity along the Afghan border.
Afghanistan’s foreign ministry condemned the attack and reiterated that Kabul does not provide safe haven to militants.
Islamabad deputy commissioner Irfan Memon said the death toll stood at 31, with 169 wounded.
Islamabad was already under heightened security for the visit of Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, with checkpoints in place across the city.
Parliamentary affairs minister Tariq Fazal said authorities were providing “every possible help” to families, after visiting the injured at Polyclinic Hospital.
Earlier this week, coordinated attacks in Balochistan killed 58 civilians, with the Balochistan Liberation Army claiming responsibility. Pakistan’s military said it killed more than 200 militants in subsequent operations.
The military later said 216 militants were killed in retaliatory operations, while 24 militants linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were killed earlier on Friday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The previous major attack in Islamabad occurred on 11 November, when a suicide bomber killed 12 people and wounded 27 others. Authorities said the attacker was an Afghan national, though no group claimed responsibility.
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