At least 31 killed in Islamabad Shi'ite mosque bombing, Islamic State claims responsibility

ISLAMABAD - An attacker opened fire at the gates of a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Islamabad on Friday (Feb 6) before setting off a suicide bomb and killing at least 31 people in the deadliest attack of its kind in Pakistan's capital in more than a decade.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram channel. The militant group also released an image that it said showed the attacker holding a gun, his face covered and eyes blurred. Reuters could not immediately verify the photo.

More than 170 others were wounded in the explosion, detonated after guards challenged the attacker as he made his way into the Khadija Tul Kubra Imambargah compound on the outskirts of the city, officials said.

Images from the site showed bloodied bodies lying on the carpeted mosque floor surrounded by shards of glass, debris and panicked worshippers. Dozens more wounded were lying in the gardens of the compound as people called for help.

Survivors said they heard gunshots and seconds later the blast, soon after the prayers began.

The man blew "himself up in the last row of worshippers," Defence Minister Khawaja Asif wrote on X.

He said the bomber had a history of travelling to Afghanistan and blamed neighbouring India for sponsoring the assault, without providing evidence.

India's foreign office condemned the attack and dismissed Pakistan's statement as "baseless".

"It is unfortunate that, instead of seriously addressing the problems plaguing its social fabric, Pakistan should choose to delude itself by blaming others for its home-grown ills," it said in a statement.

'Blood everywhere'

At Islamabad's largest public hospital, family members waited outside and in crowded corridors for news.

Sarfraz Shah, 46, said he had gone to the mosque with his younger brother Manzar, 39, as he did every Friday.

"I heard the gunshots and I was just trying to make sense of what had happened when there was a massive explosion," Shah said at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital.

"It threw people here and there. There was smoke. No one knew what had happened. Then there was blood everywhere."

He added through tears that there was no sign of his brother anywhere but when he came to the hospital he discovered that Manzar was among those killed.

Capital already on alert for visit

The attack was the deadliest suicide bombing in Islamabad in more than a decade, according to conflict monitor ACLED.

Shahid Malik, a police official who was involved in shifting the injured people and dead bodies to hospital, said what he had witnessed was a nightmare.

"I have seen many crime scenes. But this was horrible, very horrible," he said, adding there were between 600 and 700 people at the mosque.

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Shi'ites, who are a minority in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation of 241 million, have been targeted in sectarian violence in the past, including by Islamic State and the Sunni Islamist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Bombings are rare in the heavily guarded capital, although Pakistan has been hit by a rising wave of militancy in the past few years, particularly along the border with Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the attack. Kabul has repeatedly denied charges that it provides safe haven to militants carrying out attacks in Pakistan.

"A total of 31 people have lost their lives. The number of wounded brought to hospitals has risen to 169," Islamabad's Deputy Commissioner, Irfan Memon, said in a statement.

The capital was already on high alert on Friday for the visiting president of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, with roads around the capital blocked by checkpoints and security forces posted across the city.

Week of violence

Pakistan has also blamed India for assaults by militants in the restive Balochistan province over the weekend, accusations that have fanned smouldering tensions between the nuclear-powered neighbours who engaged in their worst conflict in decades in May.

New Delhi has denied any involvement in the violence in Balochistan where Pakistan's military has battled a decades-long insurgency.

That region was brought to a standstill after separatist militants stormed government buildings, hospitals and markets in a coordinated attack, killing 58 civilians and security officials. The military said it killed 216 militants in targeted offensives across the province.

The military said earlier on Friday that another 24 militants linked to the TTP were killed in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The last major attack in Islamabad was a suicide bombing on Nov 11 that killed 12 people and wounded 27 others. Pakistan said it was carried out by an Afghan national. No group claimed responsibility for that attack.

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