Islamabad, Feb 6 (UNI) At least 31 people were killed and 169 injured when a suicide bomber detonated himself at a Shia imambargah during Friday prayers in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, media reports quoted officials as stating.
The blast occurred at the Imambargah Khadijah al-Kubra in the Tarlai area, also known as Shahzad Town. A district administration spokesperson said the explosion took place near the entrance after the attacker entered the premises.
According to eyewitnesse’s police and rescue teams rushed to the scene and began evacuation and rescue operations, while security forces sealed off the area.
Scores of wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, with some victims treated in the garden outside the imambargah, witnesses said.
Officials confirmed that one of those killed was a cousin of Islamabad’s Inspector General of Police, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, while another relative was injured.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said in a post on X that 25 ambulances had been dispatched to Islamabad and that hospitals across Rawalpindi district had been placed on high alert, with surgical, orthopaedic and neurosurgical teams on standby. She said blood banks were fully staffed and operation theatres fully equipped.
As is usual in Pakistan, one of the nation’s minister’s – Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry – alleged without providing evidence that India was behind the attack.
The blast came a day after Pakistan said it had concluded operations against the Baloch Liberation Army, claiming 216 militants were killed following province-wide attacks by the BLA over the previous weekend.
