 "‘We are in a state of war’: Pakistan blames Taliban for Islamabad suicide bombing")
After a suicide bombing killed 12 people in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday blamed the Taliban and declared the country was “in a state of war”.
Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the bombing in Islamabad was a wake-up call for the entire nation.
“We are in a state of war. If anyone thinks that the Pakistan Army is fighting this war only in the Pak-Afghan border region and remote areas of Balochistan, then today’s suicide attack in the Islamabad District Court (Kacheri) is a wake-up call that this is a war for all of Pakistan. In this war, the Pakistan Army is making daily sacrifices and reassuring the people of their security,” said Asif in a statement in Urdu.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said that 12 people were killed in a "suicide blast" that occurred at 12:39 pm outside the district and sessions court building in Islamabad’s G-11 area, according to Dawn.
Initially, Naqvi said that 17 people were injured but the hospital where injured were taken later said 36 people were brought there with injuries from the blast.
The attack and Asif’s statement have come at a time when Turkey and Qatar have been mediating between Pakistan and Afghanistan's Taliban. The two sides had the worst round of fighting at the border last month since 2021 when the Taliban grabbed power in Afghanistan. Multiple rounds of talks in Doha and Istanbul have so far failed to materialise into a long-term peace agreement.
After the blast, Asif said that having any hope in reaching a peace deal with the Taliban “would be futile”.
“The Kabul rulers can stop terrorism in Pakistan, but bringing this war to Islamabad is a message from Kabul, to which Pakistan, Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), has the strength to respond fully,” said Asif.
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View All‘Not just another attack, has lots of messages’
In a media briefing, Interior Minister Naqvi said that the government was not treating the Islamabad blast as any other blast as it had “a lot of messages”.
Naqvi said that the bomber stood outside of the complex for 12 minutes and detonated the bomb when he failed to enter.
In a separate statement, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif linked the bombing and another attack on Monday at the Army-run Cadet College in South Waziristan on “Indian-sponsored terrorist proxies”, according to Geo News.
Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that armed groups opposed to its rule are supported by Afghanistan's Taliban and India. It has blamed continued attacks by these groups as the reason for stalled peace talks.
Shehbaz further said that these attacks are a continuation of India’s state-sponsored terrorism aimed at destabilising Pakistan".
Without going into the specifics, Shehbaz said the same network had struck Islamabad and South Waziristan.
Shehbaz said that Pakistan “will continue our war against terrorism until the last terrorist” of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) are eliminated.
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