12 killed, 20 injured in suicide blast outside district court in Pakistan’s capital--official

• Security official says blast carried out by “Indian-sponsored” Pakistani Taliban militant group
• Pakistan has seen resurgence in militant attacks since Afghan Taliban came to power in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Twelve people were killed while 20 others were injured in a suicide blast outside a court in Islamabad on Tuesday, a security official confirmed.

According to the official, the explosion took place outside a district court in Islamabad’s G-11 sector, saying the blast affected mostly passersby standing nearby at the time of the incident.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the official said the blast had been carried out by the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) outfit, which the military frequently describes as “Indian-sponsored” and “Fitna-ul-Khawarij.”

“The bodies of 12 people killed in the explosion have been shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Hospital,” the security official said on condition of anonymity. “Twenty injured have been shifted to emergency room at PIMS Hospital.”

The official said that more wounded persons were being brought into the hospital.

“The alleged suicide bomber’s severed head was found on the road,” he added.

Earlier Tuesday, Pakistani security forces said they foiled an attempt by militants to take cadets hostage at an army-run college overnight, when a suicide car bomber and five other Pakistani Taliban fighters targeted the facility in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

The attack started on Monday evening, when a bomber tried to storm the cadet college in Wana, a city in KP near the Afghan border. The area had until recent years served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other foreign militants.

According to Alamgir Mahsud, the local police chief, two of the militants were quickly killed by troops while three militants managed to enter the compound before being cornered in an administrative block. The army’s commandoes were among the forces conducting a clearance operation and an intermittent exchange of fire went on into Tuesday, Mahsud said.

The administrative block is away from the building housing hundreds of cadets and other staff.

The Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, denied involvement in the college attack. The group has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, and many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan.